Gov. Greg Abbott's order on forcing hospitals to grill immigrants flies under local media radar

A little more than a week ago, hospitals began questioning undocumented immigrant patients who come to the emergency room or are admitted. Greg Abbott signed Executive Order GA-46 on August 8 collect data on undocumented immigrants being treated a the hospital. Included in the data are demographic and cost information that must be reported to the Health and Human Services Commission every three months and yearly. Those questioned can decline to answer without jeopardizing getting care, according to the order.

Abbott has asserted that Texas taxpayers are overly burdened by the cost of providing care to non-US citizens, although the verbiage in the order is clearly political and inflammatory thus raising questions about the right-wing’s real agenda. If one’s ear is to the ground in the health/medical, the drum beating of concern, anger and GOP overreach is audible. Yet, as important as this issue is, it looks like the Nov. 1 implementation date flew under the local media radar.

For example, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network issued a statement raising several concerns, including that the order will frighten immigrants to the point of not getting care. The network also noted that a Harvard study “explained how a similar policy in Florida puts immigrants in an ‘impossible position: avoid the hospital and risk a loved one’s health, or seek care and potentially risk deportation.’”

Every Texan, formerly the Center for Public Policy Priorities, slammed the order.

“Abbott’s Executive Order will lead to fewer Texans and their families seeking medical care when they need it, even when dire medical needs make expensive health care necessary at the emergency room,” writes Lynn Cowles, health and food justice programs manager at Every Texan,. “These are Texans who generally already avoid less expensive medical care in settings like clinics and health centers because they are uninsured and often concerned about the cost and documentation requirements.”

She also called it anti-immigrant rhetoric “intended to scare people into not using any kind of public benefits program.”

The economy will be hurt as non-citizen construction, agricultural and service sector workers avoid the hospitals’ interrogations, Every Texan stated, adding “Meanwhile, Texas families will suffer the governor’s policies as he threatens their rights to seek medical care in emergencies.”

I reached out to DeTar Hospital Navarro and Citizen’s Medical Center on November 4 asking about how each facility might implement the order. Neither hospital has responded to me by the time this blog publishes.

But the Texas Hospital Association, responded within minutes, of my email. Carrie Williams, spokesperson for the health care trade group, said the major concern is that patients will be concerned about immigration questions and defer medical care.

“The bottom line for patients is that this doesn’t change hospital care. Texas hospitals continue to be a safe place for needed care,” Williams added. “On the particulars of implementation, all hospitals are different. Hospitals across the state are working on the backend to determine how to comply with the reporting guidance and meet the state’s deadlines.”

A Halloween horror story: the Roberson case

 The right-wing blood lust in Texas is strong and no better illustrated in the fight to save Robert Roberson from execution. On one hand, Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott and other far right Republicans continue to push for Roberson’s lethal injection. On the other side are those who assert that Roberson is the victim of “junk science” — the now discredited “shaken baby syndrome.” Further, Texas’ 2013 so-called junk science law” in and of itself should provide Roberson with a new trial. The Texas Tribune has a comprehensive review of the Roberson case.

Non-critical thinkers may be puzzled. Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence that the case needs a full review if not a new trial, are GOP stalwarts so bent on killing Roberson? What all of us must understand is that this case is another form of intimidation from the far right. The advocates for executing Roberson want to send the message that the far right Republicans in charge of the state can find a legal way to kill anyone it chooses. Remember that old saw: “With the right prosecutor, a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich?”

Take note that those leading the stampede into the death chamber include Paxton, the clearly corrupt Texas attorney general, and Abbott, the governor who touts his devotion to Roman Catholicism except when the church talks of justice and the death penalty. But it’s also the Texas judiciary and the Abbott-appointed Pardons and Parole Board turning deaf ears to modern science and the facts of the case.

The Innocence Project, a leader in exonerating condemned inmates, is among those calling for restraint and revisiting the case in full. Allies in this quest include a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers on the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence who succeeded in forcing a stay for Roberson’s scheduled October 17 execution.

What is important at this moment is to understand this part of the Texas political ecosystem is up for election on Nov. 5. To keep the far right officials in power is to risk the lives of those who would disagree with their dystopian and violence-fueled agenda. To vote to replace them with officials who are Democrats can turn the tide and redirect Texas to a more compassionate and rational place to live.

There! I've fixed it while the VA circles the drain

 As The Victoria Advocate circles the drain, I wanted to show you what the paper's new managing editor does as a reporter. Yes, I am picking on him. Why?

 Because he is turning what was once a fine newspaper into a Trumper religious rag; he is shutting down blogs that don't reflect his personal Christo-fascist view; he is mentoring a scant newsroom of green reporters who don't know how to write a tight story using AP style or how to do real reporting like making pubic records requests; he has ignored suggestions on how to drill deeper by filing public records requests; and, he has attacked me by asserting his 40-some years in journalism is superior to my master's in hospital administration, 25 years in the health care industry and 22 years as an award-wining journalist.