Hospitals required to ask citizenship status of patients

Texas hospitals, including Gonzales Healthcare Systems, began complying Friday, Nov. 1, with an executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott that requires them to ask patients’ citizenship status if they seek emergency room care.”

“Effective November l, by Executive Order No. GA-46 issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, all hospital facilities in the State of Texas will be required to ask patients presenting to the emergency room their current citizenship status,” the hospital said in a statement. “This information is then required to be submitted to the state.

“No names or personal identifiers are to be submitted, only a numerical count. This information will not affect your medical evaluation or treatment in our facility. To help with this, please have identification on your person when utilizing the emergency room. We appreciate your cooperation with this new requirement.”

Hospitals are required to turn over data they collect on citizenship in March or risk losing payments from the state’s Medicaid health insurance plan for low-income individuals, according to reporting by the Texas Tribune.

Abbott’s order does not say patients are legally bound to answer the question. However, the care of patients who answer this question, or don’t, will not be interrupted, according to the Texas Hospital Association.

Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured residents and most of them are citizens. Data also already shows that immigrants seek health care treatment at a lower rate than U.S. citizens.

Overall, about 18% of the state’s 30 million people are uninsured.

The state also has a large number of undocumented immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, Texas had 1.6 million undocumented immigrants in 2021.

However, Charles Miller, a former policy and budget adviser under Abbott who is now with Texas 2036, a policy organization, said that in looking at available data, his group estimates that just about 14% of Texas’ uninsured, about 680,000, are undocumented residents.

The Texas Tribune contributed to this report.