LOADINGERROR LOADING
WASHINGTON – Top Republicans in Congress say hospitals should continue to treat emergency patients regardless of their immigration status, indicating they have no plan to change a law guaranteeing care for anyone who shows up at a hospital in dire need of medical attention.
The topic has become a flashpoint since the government shut down last week, with Republicans accusing Democrats of refusing to vote for a funding bill supposedly because they want free health care for undocumented immigrants, portraying the use of even incidental sums of money for immigrant health care as unforgivable.
Advertisement
“They are fighting to give illegals health care on your dime,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said Wednesday at a press conference.
Much of the free health care for undocumented immigrants that Republicans have decried occurs at hospitals, which are required by federal law to assess and stabilize anyone who shows up with an emergency condition, regardless of their citizenship or ability to pay.
Unauthorized immigrants are already barred from Medicaid and other federal safety net programs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday he didn’t support changes to the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act, which has been on the books since 1986.
Advertisement
“Emergency care is provided without question to anyone who comes in. If you’re hemorrhaging and you show up in an emergency room, you get treated,” Johnson said in response to a question from HuffPost. “That’s something we all support. That’s very good law. We’re in favor of it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) also told HuffPost he supports hospitals treating all emergency patients.
“I think that’s part of the Hippocratic oath,” Thune said Friday. “If somebody, anybody comes into the ER, hospitals, clinics, doctors are going to treat them.”
Advertisement
The Trump administration hasn’t exactly embraced the concept. At the White House last week, Vice President JD Vance complained about unauthorized immigrants crowding emergency rooms: “Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?”
Asked if emergency room doctors should check immigration status before treating patients, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to get into it. “I think that’s a question for health care professionals and legal experts,” she said at a press briefing the next day.
It all started with Democrats refusing to support legislation that would have funded the government into November. In an alternate funding bill, Democrats included an extension of soon-to-expire tax credits that help millions of Americans pay for health insurance. The Democratic bill would also repeal the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts Republicans enacted earlier this year to help pay for tax cuts.
Advertisement
Republicans have claimed that undoing the health section of their bill, which included reforms to both Medicaid and subsidies for private insurance, would result in nearly $200 billion worth of health spending on undocumented immigrants. The majority of the savings, however, comes from eliminating subsidies to noncitizens with legal status, whom Republicans have nevertheless characterized as “illegal,” arguing they shouldn’t have received humanitarian parole or temporary protected status from the Joe Biden administration.
One provision of the Republican law reduced federal funding for “emergency Medicaid,” a program that reimburses states for emergency care costs for patients who would be eligible for Medicaid but aren’t due to their immigration status, whether they’re fully unauthorized or are protected from deportation.
The Affordable Care Act boosted reimbursement rates to 90% for emergency Medicaid in most states; the Republican law will reduce it to regular Medicaid reimbursement rates ranging from 50% to 80%. Emergency Medicaid has cost about $4 billion annually in recent years, around 1% of all Medicaid spending.
Advertisement
Johnson suggested that under the Affordable Care Act policy, hospitals got more money for treating undocumented immigrants than citizens.
“If you’re a young, pregnant American citizen woman who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble-rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong,” Johnson said.
But changing the Medicaid reimbursement rate won’t change what states pay hospitals, said Larry Levitt, a Medicaid expert with KFF, a health policy research and news organization.
Advertisement
“What Republicans did was shift costs to states. This has absolutely nothing to do with hospitals’ obligation to provide emergency care to undocumented immigrants or how much they get paid for it,” Levitt told HuffPost.
“There’s a confusion here between the federal government’s share of spending under Medicaid and how much hospitals actually get paid,” Levitt said. “There’s no evidence I’ve seen that hospitals get paid different rates for undocumented immigrants getting emergency care than anyone who’s covered by Medicaid.”
KeepOur VoiceStrong
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
Stand With Free Press
The need for a free and fearless press has never been greater. As corporate media cave to this administration’s pressure, we remain steadfast in our commitment to remain free and fair. Become a member today.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.