On May 18, the House defeated, 88-331, a bill (H.R. 3722) that would place restrictions on the reimbursement to hospitals for providing emergency health care to undocumented aliens. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-173) authorized $250 million annually for the reimbursement of such expenses.
Sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), the Undocumented Aliens Emergency Medical Assistance Act would prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services from reimbursing the costs of services provided to an undocumented alien unless the hospital collects the person’s citizenship, immigration status, U.S. address, employment information, and personal and financial data, including health insurance information. Hospitals would be required to submit the information to a database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. The measure would require the Department of Homeland Security to process and promptly review the information to determine if the alien should be removed from the United States. If the alien is eligible for deportation, removal proceedings would begin immediately.
H.R. 3722 would specify that hospitals are not required to provide care or services to undocumented aliens if they can be transported to their home country and there is no significant likelihood, within reasonable medical probability, of making their condition worse. Women in labor could be subject to deportation, provided that the infant’s condition would not be affected.
Speaking in opposition to the bill, Rep. Waxman (D-CA) asked, “What does society gain by forcing undocumented aliens to forgo emergency care because, as a practical matter, that will be the result if they are asked these questions on their immigration status? What benefit does it make for a woman in labor not to come in for medical care because she is fearing that she will be deported? And what does society gain by discouraging people with contagious conditions, who may put us all at risk, from going in and getting the diagnosis and treatment they need? Do we want someone who might have SARS to be afraid to go in for treatment?”
Rep. Rohrabacher responded. “The greatest threat to the treatment of American citizens and legal residents is that we are going to spend all of our available health care dollars taking care of illegals who should not be getting that money. The greatest threat to our senior citizens, to our young people is that we have a limited amount of health care dollars and my colleagues want to spend it on people who have come here illegally.”
