DALLAS — State Representative Chris Turner, D-Arlington, says Governor Greg Abbott’s recent action concerning migrant healthcare is nothing more than an “immigration stunt.”
Governor Abbott signed an executive order that requires Texas hospitals to track the cost of providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants. The Governor says the goal is to track the cost so the federal government can reimburse the state.
Before the executive order, hospitals in Texas didn’t collect information related to immigration status.
Rep. Turner told us on Inside Texas Politics that he thinks the announcement is purely political and calls the Governor’s track record on healthcare “abysmal.”
“He framed this as a healthcare cost. The way to lower healthcare costs in Texas is to reduce the number of uninsured," Turner said. "He has the power to do that. He’s had the power to do that for 10 years. But he has consistently blocked our efforts, Democrats’ efforts, to expand healthcare coverage which would lower costs for everyone,” Rep. Turner said.
According to the order, hospitals must start collecting the information on Nov. 1, 2024.
Annual reports will be delivered to the Governor and the Texas Legislature, but Turner says he has no idea what the Texas House would do with the information.
“What it sounds like to me is a gigantic unfunded mandate on hospitals around the state. They don’t have the mechanism to do this,” said the Democrat.
The lawmaker says while he has no idea how much this will cost the hospitals, he argues it will be expensive and will ultimately be shouldered by Texas consumers.
“We subsidize uninsured Texans, of which there are five million, through our healthcare premiums and through our property taxes,” he argued. “This is going to add to that total.”