One Financial Impact Of Illegal Immigration

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the medical cost of illegal immigration in Texas.

The article reports:

Texas taxpayers paid nearly $122 million to provide Healthcare to illegal migrants in November alone, says the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

The Texas HSHC is reporting that the costs to the state for health care for illegal migrants has topped $121.8 million in unpaid care in just the month of November alone. And that estimate is probably low.

In its report, the HHSC reported that non-citizens utilized hospitals in the Lone Star State more than 31,000 time during November of last year.

The data was taken from the state’s new reporting requirements mandated by an executive order that went into effect last August.

“The executive order directs Texas hospitals to provide HHSC quarterly reports on patients who are not lawfully present in the U.S.,” the report noted, “including the number of inpatient discharges, emergency department visits, and the cost of care provided to these patients.”

However, the estimate of expenses is probably low because the data is predicated on the number of patients who answer questions about their immigration status on hospital intake forms and some migrants won’t answer the questions.

The article notes”

Still, this is the first report of its kind in Texas and if every month is similar going forward, the yearly total would approach $1.46 billion per year.

American (or Texas) taxpayers simply cannot afford that.

I am not opposed to people receiving medical care when they need it, but we all know that when something is free, it tends to be overused or abused. I wonder how much of the care received should have been in a hospital or could have been taken care of in a much less expensive setting. That being said, people who are here illegally need to be sent back to where they came from to receive medical care. Or, the countries they came from need to pay the bill.