Caring for Illegal Aliens Leaves Many Hospitals Along Border in Critical Condition

Some had their limbs severed by the wheels of a train headed north from the Laredo, Tex., rail yards. Others were mangled in car crashes as they tried to flee the Border Patrol. All were among the illegal aliens who end up in Buddy Flores’ hospital on the Southwest border.

Pregnant women from Mexico, who have heard that Mercy Regional Medical Center in Laredo will not turn them away, show up ready to deliver a child who will automatically be a U.S. citizen.

Many have had no prenatal care. Others arrive midway through a difficult or troubled labor that their midwife decided she could not complete.

In a city with a large population of legal residents without insurance or money to pay for medical care, illegal aliens are draining resources at Flores’ Catholic hospital and “occupying intensive care beds that are short as it is,” he said.

The hospital writes off $20 million a year in bad debts and charity care, but Flores doesn’t know how much is spent on undocumented aliens. Under Texas law, no patient can be refused emergency services.

“Three years ago, I would have told you this was an occasional problem (delivering babies from women here illegally),” Flores said. “It’s a consistent problem now. If they’re in active labor they know we can’t refuse them.”

Laredo’s problems are not unique: Hospitals and trauma units from San Diego to Miami have been experiencing financial difficulties in treating undocumented aliens, according to border-state lawmakers.

“It is not unusual for a border-area hospital to treat a large number of patients who may be illegally within the U.S. Almost always the hospital must write off the cost of this medical care because the patient cannot pay and invariably has no medical insurance,” said Rep. Kika de la Garza, a Texas Democrat whose district borders Mexico.

De la Garza is co-sponsoring the Trauma Care Center Alien Compensation Act that would provide $20 million a year in grants to hospitals that incur at least 15% of their uncompensated costs from treating illegal aliens in their trauma units.

“The legislation would recognize immigration-related problems as a federal responsibility not to be shouldered alone by hospital trauma centers,” De la Garza said. “From Los Angeles to Miami, trauma centers face reimbursement problems that threaten trauma care for all patients.”

Co-sponsored by Rep. Bill Lowery, a San Diego Republican, the bill would apply only to trauma patients and would not cover the problem of illegal aliens delivering their babies in the United States.