Doctors in Texas public hospitals are now required to ask a person’s legal status (US citizen or not) as part of the intake process for people using Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance plans (both plans are given to illegals, I think). The impetus behind this is so that the federal government can be charged for their care, rather than it come out of the Texas state budget. Regardless of the response, it will not affect the person’s care.
Of course the wailing and gnashing of teeth have started with health departments distributing flyers telling people they don’t have to answer, doctors ‘worrying about how this information will be used’ etc. etc. etc. Because even though there’s no constitutional right to healthcare and illegals have better insurance options than most people employed outside of the federal environs, this is a problem.
But asking people if they have guns in the home, a constitutional right, they were all like ‘sure, no problem, guns bad, comply, comply, comply’. Because of mission creep from the federal Department of Health and Human Services that says that gun violence is a health issue and so wants doctors to ask about gun ownership (like that would have anything to do with a boil on a person’s ass or their cholesterol level). Maybe the new administration can retract that particular bit of guidance around Day 1.
I’m thinking there’s some ass-backward priorities going on and that, as we all figured, the medical establishment is part of the problem.
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