Every Texan’s Health and Food Justice Programs Manager Lynn Cowles spoke to The Texas Tribune about Gov. Abbott’s Executive Order GA-46, which requires the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to direct public hospitals to collect demographic information on patients that will enable hospital staff to determine how many inpatient and emergency care patients at the hospital are undocumented. The processes outlined in the Executive Order begin Nov. 1, 2024, also the date DACA recipients around the U.S. will first be able to enroll in Marketplace health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Read an excerpt below:
But there are doubts as to whether Texas will be able to come up with a solid cost figure without a lot of caveats to understand.
Data has shown for years that undocumented immigrants who lack access to health insurance plans, Medicaid included, typically use hospitals less than American citizens who are uninsured – Texas hospitals spend $3.1 billion a year on uninsured care that is not reimbursed, according to THA. Even emergency Medicaid spending, which by design, covers undocumented immigrants’ hospital costs in limited circumstances, has gone down in the last five years. And efforts by Florida to answer the same undocumented patient care question have fallen short.
“This executive order is intended to scare people into not using any kind of public benefits program,” said Lynn Cowles, health and food justice programs manager at Every Texan, which advocates for better health care in Texas. “It’s pretty classic anti-immigrant rhetoric that will not lead to any new understandings from data collected by (Texas) Health and Human Services.”