Fox’s first appearance: Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee urge the Biden administration to take action over reports that safety-net hospitals in at least one state are reaching breaking point due to a surge of migrants overwhelming states and cities across the country. – Lawmakers warn that the virus could soon spread to other hospitals across the country.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the Republican Party, led by Chairman Jason Smith, said a major safety-net hospital in Denver, Colorado, is facing financial pressures. , referring to reports that he had withdrawn. The cases are “due to the large influx of illegal immigrants into the community and the resulting increase in hospital visits and services provided to those populations.”
CBS News reported that the hospital received about $60 million in free care in 2020, which now stands at $136 million. Quarter coming soon From residents outside of Denver. Officials said they were in a “critical situation”.
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House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
Republicans warned that the Denver Health Department is unable to invest in the building and cited reports showing it is turning away Denver residents in the area seeking mental health and substance abuse care.
But lawmakers warn the problem could soon become nationwide. The country has been in the grips of a three-year migration crisis, with more than 2.4 million migrants encountered in fiscal 2023 alone and more than 300,000 migrants in December. Many states, including those with “sanctuary” policies that prohibit or limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), are struggling to keep up with the numbers, and the numbers are straining services. It is claimed that there is. They also asked the federal government for additional assistance.
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“The Denver Health Department’s challenges could soon be mirrored in hospitals in sanctuary cities across the country, endangering the nation’s health care safety net and threatening access to care for vulnerable patients,” the Republicans said.
Republicans asked Becerra what steps the department has taken to ensure hospitals do not turn away patients due to the surge of immigrants to the region “as a result of regional sanctuary policies.”
The letter also asks what guidance has been provided to hospitals facing such a surge and whether Medicare regulations will be amended to require hospitals to prepare for such an event. Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment on the letter.
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Venezuelan immigrants wait for food from a food truck at an immigration processing center in Denver, Colorado, on May 9, 2023. (Helen H. Richardson/Media News Group/Denver Post via Getty Images)
The letter comes as both President Biden and former President Donald Trump are heading to the border. Democrats and the administration blame Republicans for the current crisis on their refusal to pass additional funding or comprehensive reforms to resolve the crisis, including a recent funding and reform bill that failed in the Senate. Republicans are blaming it. Biden is expected to renew his call for the bill to be passed during his visit to the border.
But Republicans blame the administration for the crisis, arguing that it coincided with the end of Trump-era policies and the end of more liberal policies, such as increasing catch-and-release and scaling back domestic enforcement. ing.
“President Biden’s disastrous border policies are the direct cause of an unprecedented crisis at the southern border, resulting in millions of illegal immigrants entering the United States,” Smith said in a statement to Fox News Digital. It’s inundating communities and putting a strain on public health infrastructure.”
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Smith said he and his colleagues on the committee are “committed to holding the Biden Department of Health and Human Services accountable to ensure our health care system is able to meet the challenges created by this administration’s border policies.” Stated.
“Until we return to the Trump-era policies that actually secured the border, the health of our population as a whole will continue to be affected by that,” he said.
