Harris County, Texas, D.A. Launches Criminal Investigation Into Hospital District’s Care for Illegal Immigrants

Harris County, Texas, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal on July 30 launched a criminal investigation into the Harris County Hospital District after the Young Conservatives of Texas filed a complaint accusing the hospital district of "forcing the public to pay for non-emergency health care" for undocumented immigrants, the AP/Nando Times reports (Easton, AP/Nando Times, 7/30). Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (R) issued a legal opinion that said the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (national welfare reform) prohibits public hospitals from providing health services -- except emergency room care, immunizations, treatment of communicable diseases and care for child abuse -- to undocumented immigrants. Although Cornyn said that states may bypass the law with legislation, he said that "no such law exists" in Texas (Brewer, Houston Chronicle, 7/26). Cornyn also urged the Harris County Hospital District to stop providing preventive services to undocumented immigrants. According to the Young Conservatives' complaint, "If bureaucrats charged with the public trust are permitted to indulge their own personal policy preferences instead of following the law, the work that our elected officials do on behalf of their constituents becomes irrelevant, as it can be overridden with impunity." Young Conservatives Vice Chair Marc Levin said that the Harris County Hospital District has spent $330 million in the past three years to treat undocumented immigrants, adding that the group may file additional complaints in Dallas, El Paso and Bexar counties. However, hospital district officials in Harris, Dallas, Bexar and El Paso counties have said that to stop providing care to undocumented immigrants "would threaten public health, clog emergency rooms and result in a larger expense to taxpayers" (AP/Nando Times, 7/30).

Green Proposes Bill
Meanwhile, two weeks after Cornyn issued his legal opinion on the issue, Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) last week proposed a bill in Congress ( HR 2635) that would amend the 1996 law to allow local authorities, including counties and hospital districts, to provide primary and preventive care to undocumented immigrants (Houston Chronicle, 7/26). According to Green, the bill would allow hospitals to avoid "expensive" emergency room costs. "Providing primary and preventive health care makes economic sense. By supplying health care services for basic health care needs, we take care of medical problems before they develop into painful and expensive complications," he said (Gamboa, Associated Press, 7/26).

Support for Green
A Houston Chronicle editorial praises Green for "acting with dispatch to try to clear up a conflict between state and federal law regarding health care for illegal immigrants." According to the Chronicle, the federal government has failed to "stem the tide of illegal immigration" in Texas and other states, and "[i]t is wrong for federal law then to handicap" states' "ability to deal with resulting health care issues." The editorial adds that the bill "makes financial sense," pointing out that "taxpayers will end up paying far more when desperately sick undocumented residents show up at already overburdened" emergency rooms, a situation that may "put U.S. citizens' health in jeopardy" (Houston Chronicle, 7/29). For further information on state health policy in Texas, visit State Health Facts Online.