Texas hospitals spent millions on noncitizen health care, state says
(NewsNation) — Texas treated tens of thousands of noncitizen patients over the last six months — totaling millions in health care costs — according to unreleased data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Victoria Grady, the commission's director of provider finance, testified before lawmakers earlier this week about the preliminary uncompensated care findings.
'The number of visits was in the thousands, the tens of thousands, and the costs were in the millions,' Grady said, according to Texas Tribune reporting. 'We should be finalizing the data by the end of the week.'
Legislators are weighing a bill from Republican state Rep. Mike Olcott that would codify Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order requiring hospitals to collect and report immigration status information in an annual report.
The order required hospitals to collect data beginning Nov. 1, 2024, with a data deadline of March 1.
Grady said 558 Texas hospitals have shared data so far, but none of the findings have been made public.
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Abbott's executive order and the proposed legislation to make it law have sparked fiery debates.
Abbott and other Republican lawmakers backing the measure have argued that unpaid medical bills place a financial burden on the state's remaining hospitals.
Critics of the order, including health care advocacy groups like Every Texan, say the reason behind the massive amounts of uncompensated care is the state's high rate of uninsured patients.
'I think one of the big issues with this bill –– if it is intended to understand the problems of rural hospitals closing across the state –– is that the pool of uncompensated care is so large because of the amount of citizens who are uninsured in Texas,' said Lynn Cowles, Every Texan's health and food justice programs manager.
Nearly 5 million Texans lack insurance coverage, according to nonpartisan think tank Texas 2036.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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