Illegal Immigrants Cause $566 Million in Unpaid Healthcare Burden on Florida
WARNER TODD HUSTON
30 Apr 2024
Florida passed a law requiring hospitals to publicize the costs of unpaid care for migrants, and the reports thus far show that the loss to the state’s hospitals is a massive $566 million just in 2024 — and taxpayers are picking up much of that loss.
In May 2023, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718, requiring healthcare providers to note if patients are legal citizens. The purpose of the legislation was to ascertain just how much care for illegal aliens cost taxpayers and hospitals after the illegals were found unable to pay for their care.
In his statement at the time, DeSantis said:
In Florida, we will not stand idly by while the federal government abandons its lawful duties to protect our country. The legislation I signed today gives Florida the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country, fighting back against reckless federal government policies and ensuring the Florida taxpayers are not footing the bill for illegal immigration.
Ron DeSantis
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Since the bill was passed in 2023, many hospitals have begun making their reports to the state, and the amount of money they are losing to the care of illegals is staggering.
The case of the loss to Manatee Memorial Hospital is illustrative.
Manatee Memorial Hospital CEO Tom McDougal noted at a recent county meeting that the hospital received $2.7 million in funding from the county in 2023. However, the hospital spent $21.2 million in 2023 on uninsured care costs, predominantly to illegals, compared to $14.4 million in 2021, the Herald-Tribune reported on April 18.
McDougal went on to estimate that $17.9 million per year is spent on unfunded care services. He added that the spending amounts to a $15.2 million annual shortfall even after county funds are applied to the loss.
The state also reported that, in 2021, care for illegals cost the state about $312 million. But now it is even worse.
With SB 1718 now recording the costs to the Sunshine State in real-time, it is clear that the costs of caring for indigent illegals are quickly adding up. To name just a few, according to the state’s reporting website, MyFlorida.com, Broward County has lost $43,056,022 so far in 2024 to the unpaid medical expenses for illegals. Duval has suffered a loss of $31,439, 143, Hillsborough’s loss is at $58,822,134, Orange stands at $58,328,521, and Miami-Dade has lost a whopping $231,804,144.
According to the reporting website, the estimated costs to care for illegal aliens have totaled more than $566 million to date.
Florida is hardly the only state throwing millions in state funding at health care for illegals. In March 2023, Fox News reported that between December 2021 and November 2022, Yuma Regional Medical Center in Yuma, Arizona, had spent $26 million on migrants who did not pay for the services.
In January 2021, Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton estimated that the Lone Star State spent between $62-90 million per year to cover illegal aliens. Illinois reported an expenditure of $1.1 billion in 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the federal government is also in the business of giving illegals free medical care, paid for courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers. Even as far back as 2018, the federal government was spending $18.5 billion to pay for hospitals and health care for illegal aliens, according to Forbes. And that was long before President Joe Biden threw the borders wide open and put billions more tax dollars to the task.
Former President Donald Trump did put a block on these expenditures for a brief time, but Biden opened the spigot wide once again when he took residence in the White House.
The costs continue to balloon. Early in 2023, the Federation for American Immigration Reform reported that illegal immigration was costing the nation’s hospital systems at least $23 billion annually — $8.2 billion of which is uncompensated medical care for illegal aliens.
