Fear Grips Immigrants Amid New Hospital Laws in Florida and Texas

New hospital laws in Florida and Texas are causing fear among immigrants needing medical care. These laws require hospitals to ask patients their legal status in the U.S., deterring many from seeking treatment. Despite efforts to clarify the law's limits, fear and misunderstanding prevail, impacting healthcare access.

For three days, the staff of an Orlando medical clinic encouraged a woman with abdominal pain who called the triage line to go to the hospital. She resisted, scared of a 2023 Florida law that required hospitals to ask whether a patient was in the U.S. with legal permission. The clinic had worked hard to explain the limits of the law, which was part of Gov. Ron DeSantis' sweeping package of tighter immigration policies. The clinic posted signs and counseled patients: They could decline to answer the question and still receive care. Individual, identifying information wouldn't be reported to the state. "We tried to explain this again and again and again, but the fear was real," Grace Medical Home CEO Stephanie Garris said, adding the woman finally did go to an emergency room for treatment.

Texas will be the next to try a similar law for hospitals enrolled in state health plans, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. It takes effect Nov. 1 — just before the end of a presidential election in which immigration is a key topic. "Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants," Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement announcing his mandate, which differs from Florida's in that providers don't have to tell patients their status won't be shared with authorities.

Both states have high numbers of immigrants, ranging from people who are in the U.S. without legal permission to people who have pending asylum cases or are part of mixed-status families. And while the medically uninsured rate in these two states — neither of which have expanded Medicaid — are higher than the national average, research has shown immigrants tend to use less and spend less on health care. Texas and Florida have a long history of challenging the federal government's immigration policies by passing their own. And their Republican leaders say the hospital laws counter what they see as lax enforcement at the border by the Biden administration — though Florida's early data is, by its own admission, limited. Florida GOP state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, who sponsored the hospital bill, said in a written statement that the law is "the strongest, and most comprehensive state-led, anti-ILLEGAL immigration law," but did not respond to The Associated Press' questions about the impact of the law on the immigrant community or on hospital patients.

(With inputs from agencies.)