Hospitals and Taxpayers Hemorrhage With ‘Free’ Health Care For Illegal Aliens

While more than 98,000 illegal aliens were encountered in the Yuma, Ariz., border sector last year – a figure roughly equaling the city’s entire population — the local hospital provided $26 million in uncompensated care to migrants.

CEO Robert Trenschel testified at a congressional hearing this month that many border crossers (apparently penniless and in hock to their cartel escorts) come with “significant disease” and required major treatments, ranging from dialysis to heart surgery.

The $26 million price tag surely strains the financial health of Yuma and its hospital. But it’s not out of the norm.

In 2021, Texans paid $717 million for public hospital districts to serve the healthcare needs of illegal aliens in the Lone Star State.

A 2018 study found that Americans were subsidizing health care for migrants to the tune of $18.5 billion a year.

These must now be considered low-ball figures, given the soaring costs of health care and sharp increases in illegal immigration under the Biden administration.

A FAIR report stated that some 1.3 million illegal aliens were released into the U.S. during Biden’s first year in office. Add roughly 1 million “gotaways,” per sources at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and FAIR concluded, “It can be safely estimated that approximately 2.3 million illegal aliens successfully entered the country.”

FAIR estimated that 15.5 million illegal aliens were in the U.S. at the end of 2021. So taxpayers may expect migrant healthcare costs to keep climbing along with the unabated surge in border crossings.

Back in Yuma, Dr. Trenschel said federal officials haven’t offered any solutions to his hospital’s predicament. Here’s one bit of triage Washington could try: Cut off all illegal immigration, now.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats, who were no-shows at the Arizona hearings, could make themselves useful by reading the testimony transcripts and reaching across the aisle to stanch this ongoing hemorrhage of tax dollars. After all, U.S. citizens don’t generally get the “free” health care that illegal aliens are receiving every day.