Texas County Investigates Options To Continue Care For Undocumented Immigrants While Advocacy Groups Counter AG Opinion

In response to a Texas attorney general opinion banning hospitals from providing nonemergency care to illegal immigrants, Harris County has created a task force to determine how hospitals can continue providing preventive care to that population, the Houston Chronicle reports (Brewer, Houston Chronicle, 7/24). State Attorney General John Cornyn, who issued the opinion in response to an inquiry from Harris County Hospital District administrators, said that 1996 federal welfare reform law prohibits the use of public funds for undocumented residents unless state law has granted authorization. As Texas has not passed such a law, it is illegal for medical facilities to use tax dollars to provide preventive care for undocumented immigrants, Cornyn wrote in the opinion (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/13). Despite the opinion, John Guest, president and CEO of the hospital district, has "vowed" that the hospital district "will not change the level of care provided to anyone until the issue is resolved." To this end, the county has established a task force including Guest, County Attorney Mike Stafford, County Budget Officer Dick Raycraft and Steven Schnee, director of the county's Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority, to devise a plan to continue providing preventive care services "without running afoul of federal law." Stafford said the task force will try to "find a way" to comply with the federal law until the state Legislature can "fix the situation in 2003" (Houston Chronicle, 7/24).

Continued Criticism
While Harris County works to continue providing services, advocates of immigrants on July 24 continued to criticize Cornyn's opinion, the AP/Dallas Morning News reports. Frumencio Reyes, an attorney speaking on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said, "What I don't understand is how they can deprive these folks of some real basic services. If that segment of society gets smart, they will all go to the emergency room and clog that part of the system up." Countering Cornyn's opinion, the American Civil Liberties Union said the state constitution covers the authorization Cornyn says is required for preventive care. In creating hospital districts, the Texas constitution reads, "such hospital districts shall assume full responsibility for providing medical and hospital care to needy inhabitants of the county." ACLU spokesperson David Kahne said, "Inhabitants is the key word. It doesn't say 'legal residents.' The way the statute's interpreted -- just preceding the attorney general's opinion -- was that 'inhabitants' mean everybody" (Easton, AP/Dallas Morning News, 7/25). For further information on state health policy in Texas, visit State Health Facts Online.