What is mass illegal immigration actually costing Texas hospitals — and who’s really footing the bill? In this episode of Spotlight, host Selene Rodriguez is joined by Texas State Representative and practicing anesthesiologist Dr. Tom Oliverson and TPPF Policy Scholar Brooke Garner for a frank conversation on the financial strain that both legal and illegal immigration is placing on Texas’s healthcare system.
From birth tourism to uncompensated care, Dr. Oliverson draws on his firsthand experience in labor and delivery and the Texas legislature to break down the federal mandates, state programs, and systemic loopholes driving billions in unreimbursed costs for Texas taxpayers. Brooke walks through emerging legislative solutions — including sponsor repayment enforcement — that could help Texas claw back dollars lost to fraud and abuse.
In this episode:
– Why Governor Abbott’s executive order on healthcare cost tracking matters
– How EMTALA creates an unfunded mandate on every hospital in America
– Birth tourism: from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston to China
– The CHIP Perinatal program and its lack of a citizenship requirement
– Sponsor repayment legislation and what Texas could do first in the nation
– Surrogacy as an overlooked birth tourism loophole
– The real human cost of strained emergency services in border communities
– Why fixing this system actually helps American citizens who depend on Medicaid