State Sen. Victor Torres represents predominantly Hispanic Osceola County in central Florida. At Sunday Mass at his local church, immigrants often tell him they are scared to seek health care.
“They say, ‘My mother is ill, or my kid is sick, but I don’t have insurance,’’’ the Democrat said in an interview. “And I tell them, ‘You cannot be turned away. Go to the hospital. Don’t wait until the last minute when it’s too late.’”
Under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals that have emergency departments and participate in Medicare — about 98% of hospitals in the United States — must provide emergency care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
Florida and Texas, however, recently have required hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status. Supporters say the new policies will illuminate the costs of caring for people living in the country illegally, but critics say they are designed to dissuade immigrants from seeking care.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023 signed a sweeping immigration law that includes a provision requiring hospitals that accept Medicaid (which includes state funding) to collect data on patients’ immigration status. In August, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott followed suit, by signing an executive order that requires Texas public hospitals to collect data on the costs they incur to provide emergency and inpatient care for people lacking permanent legal status.
“Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants,” Abbott said in issuing the order.
Data from Texas isn’t available yet. In Florida, however, a March report by the state Agency for Health Care Administration suggests patients lacking legal status account for a relatively narrow slice of overall health care spending.
In the second half of 2023, the agency found, immigrants without…
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