WASHINGTON — A proposal to divert funds from a federal program that reimburses hospitals for the cost of treating illegal immigrants has angered lawmakers in California and other border states.
Under the proposal the House Appropriations Committee planned to consider today, some of those funds would be shifted to help states cover shortfalls in a children's health insurance program.
But the plan, which would affect hospitals nationwide, drew a sharp response from lawmakers from border states, where hospitals struggle with the cost of care for illegal immigrants unable to pay their bills.
House aides were scrambling Wednesday night to scrap the proposal and find other ways to make up the shortfalls in the children's health insurance program.
The staffers had proposed tapping the funds used to pay hospitals for illegal immigrant healthcare because they incorrectly believed that hospitals had forfeited the funds, which are left over from previous years.
California hospital officials were optimistic Wednesday night that the plan would be scrapped.
With almost half of California's hospitals operating in the red, lawmakers such as Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) expressed concern about the added financial strain the move could impose.
California's 430 hospitals spent an estimated $700 million to cover healthcare costs for illegal immigrants in 2006. Under the reimbursement program, the state received $73 million.
"California hospitals shouldn't have to bear the burden of uncompensated care provided to individuals who come into this country as a result of the federal government's failure to properly police the borders," said Jan Emerson of the California Hospital Assn.
She stressed that problems in the California medical system stem from a wide variety of causes, such as underfunded Medicaid programs, required anti-earthquake renovations, and the fact that one in five people who enter a California hospital do so without insurance.
The 14 states with a shortfall in their child health insurance programs overspent their allotments. None of them are on the southern border.
Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who spearheaded the original reimbursement program, organized a bipartisan group of nine senators who issued a letter Wednesday urging continued funding for hospitals.
