Karen Bass: Illegals Avoiding Hospitals Due to Fear of ICE

Los Angeles’s radical Democrat Mayor Karen Bass took to social media Wednesday to lament that illegal aliens have begun skipping their free hospital visits for fear that immigration officials might be waiting to take them into custody.

Bass cited a story by website LAist tha claimed local hospitals and clinics have noted a decline in visits by migrants as Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity increases in the city.

“St. John’s clinics in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire have seen cancellations and appointment absences increase to 30% since June 6, when the federal government began enhanced enforcement,” the website claimed. “Los Angeles General Medical Center’s no-show and cancellation rates have doubled to around 20%.”

This, Mayor Bass feels, is a tragedy.

“Patients are skipping life-saving care out of fear of ICE, with no-shows doubling in some L.A. hospitals,” she wrote without pointing out that the “patients” she is talking about are illegal aliens who are getting free healthcare..

“I worked in the Emergency Room — I know firsthand how dangerous this is. This assault on our city must end,” she moaned.

But as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller points out, “free” care for illegals is one of the chief upward drivers of U.S. healthcare costs.

“A primary driver of healthcare costs in America is the free or subsidized healthcare provided to illegal aliens and their families.,” he wrote in response to Bass’s X post.

In another post Miller pointed out one of the segments of the LAist story that was trenchant. “Think about this. You have hospitals where as much one-third of the costs/wait times are illegals,” he wrote.

Two states have led the way in attempting to put a cost on the “free” care for indigent illegals.

Both Texas and Florida have mandated that hospitals track and report the costs they incur for caring for illegal aliens who have no insurance and cannot pay their bills.

Texas hospitals have reported that more than 100,000 illegals have been given free care in the state’s hospitals since the reporting rules were put in place. The flood of illegals has cost the state’s hospitals a minimum of $434 million since reporting began late last year.

Florida has reported similar findings and early this year noted that illegal aliens have cost its hospitals $660 million in unpaid hospital bills during its reporting period.

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