Fox Hosts Lament Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants, Even Though It Saves Money
WSJ: “Politicians Figure It Is Cheaper, Safer And Easier To Give Basic Health Services” To Undocumented Immigrants, Than To Only Treat Them In Emergency Rooms Where “Taxpayers Already Are Committed To Paying For Care.”
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Fox hosts Stuart Varney and Tucker Carlson criticized programs that provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants, saying the programs “seriously squeeze[] local budgets” and are “suicidal.” However, according to The Wall Street Journal article that Varney and Carlson cite, politicians in the 20 counties that are spending $1 billion a year to provide free or very low-cost health care coverage for undocumented immigrants pointed out that, “it is cheaper, safer and easier to give basic health services to immigrants who can't get insurance than to treat them only in the county's emergency rooms.” The Journal also explained that “American hospitals have long been required by law to screen and stabilize any patient, regardless of his or her ability to pay, which means taxpayers already are committed to paying for care in its most expensive setting.” And the New England Healthcare Institute estimated that the same care a person, including an undocumented immigrant, receives in an emergency room “costs two to five times less at a primary care doctor.” From the March 25 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends: