Border States Lead the Nation in Uninsured Patients

What do most states with the highest percentage of uninsured populations have in common? They are all border states, according to a report by the Florida Hospital Association.

Texas leads the nation with 26.8 percent of its population under 65 that did not have health care coverage in 2006, according to "Databrief: Uninsured and the Impact on Florida’s Hospitals”. New Mexico and Florida, each with 24 percent of their population uninsured in 2006, are the next two states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents.

In fact, six of the 10 states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents are border states, according to the FHA report. The other four – Arkansas, Georgia, Nevada and Oklahoma – are neighbors to the border states.

Federal mandates require Medicare participating hospitals to provide emergency services to undocumented immigrants. In 2002, Florida hospitals spent more than $40.5 million to treat uninsured non-U.S. citizens, according to the FHA.

FHA spokesperson Rich Rasmussen said more Florida hospitals are reporting instances of non-U.S. citizens coming to the state to receive health care and leaving without paying their bills.

“It’s an issue we hear is growing,” he said. “Florida is a very popular destination for folks coming from Central and South America (to receive medical treatment). Some may own a home in Florida but we’re still not able to receive payment from them. They leave the country.”

According to the American Hospital Association, the nation’s hospitals provided $31.2 billion in uncompensated care in 2006, the last year for which comparison figures are available. The vast majority of that expense is from treating uninsured patients.

AHA Spokesman David Allen said undocumented immigrants are included in the nation’s estimated 47 million uninsured, but the AHA doesn’t know what percentage of undocumented workers are represented in the estimate or how much they contribute to the industry’s uncompensated care expense.

“If a patient comes in that doesn’t have the means to pay his or her bill, their immigration status is not the point. We wouldn’t separate it out,” he said.

A 2002 report by Border Counties Coalition, however, showed that border hospitals alone spent more than $200 million in 2000 to provide emergency health care to undocumented immigrants. The report helped secure additional funding to treat undocumented immigrants in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which expires at the end of this year unless federal lawmakers authorize a two-year extension.