As part of Florida’s new sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, any hospital that accepts Medicaid must include a question on its admission or registration forms inquiring whether the patient is a citizen of the United States. That question must be followed by a statement that the response will not affect patient care or result in a report of the patient’s immigration status to immigration authorities.
But advocates say it has caused confusion and fear within immigrant communities in the state seeking medical care. (Medicaid is health coverage for low-income families and individuals.) The move came after as part of a new law which went into effect on July 1, which was pushed by the 2023 Legislature. A patient can decline to answer the question, according to the law.
The advocacy groups are now promoting a “Decline to Answer” campaign, complete with printable cards and a toolkit that is available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. The effort is led by the “We Are Florida Coalition,” a campaign organized by the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
The campaign says that they have three key messages to the undocumented: 1) That they have a right to receive emergency care, regardless of immigration status; 2) Interpretation services in their language should be available to them; 3) They can and “should decline” to answer questions about their immigration status without consequences.
“Access to health care is a fundamental human right, and no one should experience fear or discrimination when seeking help, said Rosa Elera, digital strategist of policy and politics for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, in a written statement.
“I have experienced first-hand the devastating results of what fear can do to Florida’s mixed-status families navigating complex immigration systems while seeking medical care. My late father put off seeking health care, fearing deportation and being separated from his family. By delaying care, his disease progressed until it was too late, ultimately taking him from us. This was heartbreaking and devastating for our family. We invite everyone to join us in this critical effort to ‘Decline to Answer’ when visiting a hospital or health care facility. Together, we can protect and ensure the safety and well-being of all our communities.”
“The Rural Women’s Health Project is pleased to support the Decline to Answer campaign,” added Ethan Maia de Needell, immigrant program manager of the Rural Women’s Health Project, also in a statement.
“We must protect our communities against actions which threaten the health of the most vulnerable among us. The provision in SB 1718 requiring anyone seeking critical, emergency health services to answer questions on status serves only to strike fear into the immigrant community. It is a barrier to ‘protecting the public health of entire populations and we must all, regardless of background or status, come together and decline to answer.”
Health care for undocumented immigrants in Florida totaled nearly $313 million in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, as reported by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
The law requires each hospital that accepts Medicaid in the state must submit a quarterly report to AHCA on the number of hospital admissions or emergency room visits made by patients who said that they were U.S. citizens, were not U.S. citizens, or declined to answer. By March 1 of each year, AHCA is required to send a report to the governor, the Florida House Speaker and the Senate President with those totals.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix