Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is introducing legislation that would require hospitals participating in federal health care programs to ask patients to indicate their immigration status.
The hospitals would have to report aggregate totals, including the number of patients who say they are not lawfully present in the United States.
Roy’s “Illegal Alien Patient Reporting Act” would amend Title XI of the Social Security Act and exclude hospitals from participation in federal healthcare programs if they fail to comply with the legislation’s reporting requirements.
“For years, Americans have watched overcrowded emergency rooms, rising healthcare costs, and strained hospital resources while being kept in the dark about the potential billions of taxpayer dollars spent on healthcare for those who are in the country illegally,” Roy told Breitbart News.
“That lack of accountability is unacceptable and absurd,” the Texas Republican continued. “The Illegal Alien Patient Reporting Act delivers the transparency and accountability Americans deserve by ensuring hospitals report the extent to which illegal aliens are adding to the fiscal burden of our healthcare system.”
Under the bill, hospital admission, registration, and other intake forms would be required to ask patients or their authorized representatives to indicate the patient’s immigration status.
Hellbound and Down 