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Investigation: Waste of the Day – Florida Hospitals Spent $566 Million Caring for Illegal Immigrants

By Jeremy Portnoy

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Investigation by Jeremy Portnoy originally published by RealClearInvestigations and RealClearWire

Topline: Florida hospitals spent $566 million providing care for illegal immigrants in the last six months of 2023, according to a recent report from the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration.

Key facts: Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law in May 2023 instructing all hospitals that receive Medicaid funds to collect data on patients’ immigration status. Patients can decline to answer and are informed that their quality of care will not be affected.

Between June and December 2023, nearly 55,000 hospital patients said they were not in the country legally. An additional 486,000 patients declined to provide their citizenship status.

Less than 1 % of patients self-identified as illegal immigrants. Florida multiplied that number by total hospital operating expenses of $69 billion — an estimate based on 2022 data — to arrive at its $566 million figure.

The report classifies the expense as “uncompensated care,” meaning hospitals spend more on helping illegal immigrants than they earn by providing them services. The report argues that “these costs are directly or indirectly passed on to taxpayers or to customers and insurers” because hospitals will be forced to raise rates or cut costs to make up the money.

Miami-Dade County hospitals spent almost $232 million caring for illegal aliens, the most by far of any county in the state. Orange County and Hillsborough County each spent nearly $60 million.

There were over 6.6 million hospital visits in total in 2023, mostly from American citizens and immigrants with legal status.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

Background: Alexis Tsoukalas, a policy analyst with the Florida Policy Institute, told WLRN the report is “misleading” because it assumes that every hospital patient incurs the same expense, regardless of why they need medical care.

Tsoukalas also pointed out that some of the costs will be reimbursed by Medicaid — but that’s still taxpayer money.

Regardless, DeSantis’ new law appears to be scaring some immigrants away from seeking medical care.

Data obtained by Politico shows that $148.4 million of state and federal Medicaid dollars went toward migrants in Florida in fiscal year 2023, but only $67 million was spent in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2024. There is no direct evidence that DeSantis’ law caused the decrease, Politico noted.

Summary: Hospitals have a duty to help those in need, but our government also has a duty to protect our borders and safeguard taxpayer funds.
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By Jeremy Portnoy – The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

Deneen Borelli

Deneen Borelli is the author of Blacklash: How Obama and the Left are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation. Deneen is a contributor with Newsmax Broadcasting. She is a former Fox News contributor and has appeared regularly on “Hannity,” “Fox & Friends,” “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” and “America’s Newsroom.” She has also appeared on Fox Business Network programs “Making Money with Charles Payne,” “The Evening Edit with Liz MacDonald,” and “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” Previously, Deneen appeared on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC and C-SPAN. In addition to television, Deneen co-hosted radio programs on the SiriusXM Patriot channel with her husband Tom. Recently, Deneen co-hosted the Reigniting Liberty podcast with Tom. Deneen is a frequent speaker at political events, including the FreedomWorks 9.12.2009 March on D.C. which drew a crowd estimated at over 800,000 people. Deneen is also an Ambassador with CloutHub.com, a social media platform that promotes free speech, and with the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) which advances policies that put Americans first. Deneen testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources in May 2011 and before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee in December 2011. Previously, Deneen was a BlazeTV.com host, Outreach Director with FreedomWorks.org overseeing its Empower.org outreach program, a Project 21 Senior Fellow, and Manager of Media Relations with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Prior to joining CORE, Deneen worked at Philip Morris USA for 20 years. During her corporate career at Philip Morris she worked in various positions, her last as Project Management Coordinator in the Information Management department where she was responsible for the department’s mandated quality processes, communications, sales information and database management. Deneen began her Philip Morris career as a secretary and advanced to positions of increasing responsibilities. Deneen worked full-time and attended classes at night for 11 years to earn her B.A. in Managerial Marketing from Pace University, New York City. Deneen served on the Board of Trustees with The Opportunity Charter School in Harlem, New York. She appeared in educational videos for children, worked as a runway fashion model, and auditioned for television commercials. Her interests include ancient history, pistol target shooting, photography, and volunteering at her church. Deneen currently resides in Connecticut with her husband Tom.

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