Texas Governor Threatens To Pull Hospital Funding Over Physician's Viral TikTok

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) threatened to tug funding from Texas Youngsters’s Hospital and Baylor School of Medication after a health care provider stated on TikTok that sufferers don’t must disclose their immigration standing.

“Hey Texas Youngsters’s Hospital & Baylor School of Medication, this physician is placing your Medicaid and Medicare funding in danger,” Abbott wrote on X on Nov. 24. “You higher assume twice & have crystal clear information. There will probably be penalties for failing to observe the regulation within the Government Order.”

The submit comes after Tony Pastor, a health care provider at Texas’s Youngsters’s Hospital and assistant professor at Baylor School of Medication, posted a TikTok, that has since been deleted, by which he inspired sufferers to not reply whether or not they’re a U.S. citizen on their consumption type on the hospital.

“It has made all of us physicians and suppliers tremendous uncomfortable,” Pastor stated within the TikTok. “Nobody has advised us what persons are going to do with this info.”

On Nov. 1, Abbott issued an executive order that requires the Texas Well being and Human Providers Fee “to gather info on unlawful immigrants who use Texas public hospitals for inpatient and emergency care and to report incurred healthcare prices as a result of Biden-Harris Administration’s reckless open border insurance policies.”

“Resulting from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border insurance policies, Texas has needed to foot the invoice for medical prices for people illegally within the state,” Abbott said in a news release. “Texans mustn’t must shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical look after unlawful immigrants. That’s the reason at present I issued an Government Order requiring the Texas Well being and Human Providers Fee to gather and report healthcare prices for unlawful immigrants in our state. Texas will maintain the Biden-Harris Administration accountable for the results of their open border insurance policies, and we’ll battle to make sure that they pay again Texas for his or her expensive and harmful insurance policies.”

In an announcement to HuffPost, Texas Youngsters’s Hospital stated it “absolutely helps” Abbott’s govt order and is in “full compliance.”

“We now have labored carefully with the Texas Hospital Affiliation and our business companions throughout the state to make sure compliance upfront of the efficient date,” the assertion reads. “Whereas we acknowledge that people working at Texas Youngsters’s maintain their very own private views on many matters, these opinions don’t essentially replicate the official place of Texas Youngsters’s Hospital. We’ll proceed to prioritize affected person care whereas guaranteeing we’re in full compliance with all legal guidelines and authorized directives.”

Abbott’s workplace and Baylor School of Medication didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In an Oct. 31 TikTok, Pastor spoke about how his grandfather immigrated to the USA to obtain medical care.

“It simply drives me loopy that we’ve come this far as a nation that we neglect we’re a nation of immigrants,” Pastor stated. “And racism and bigotry has simply taken over a small inhabitants.”