Opinion
Rebuttal to Herald Attack
on MassHealth Limited
An October 27 th article in the Boston Herald blasted Massachusetts for providing emergency medical treatment to undocumented immigrants. Entitled "Illegals’ Medical Bills Top $35.7M," the article calculates the amount paid by the state for emergency care for 52,000 undocumented immigrants this year.
The article fails to stress that this cost is not optional: It is mandated by a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. The purpose of this federal law is to prevent "serious jeopardy" to the health of patients and to fundamentally protect our society's public health (for example, by providing treatment for grave communicable diseases). The Herald, however, claims that the costs associated with this basic national law are "sparking outrage" in Massachusetts.
According to the Herald, undocumented immigrants made up 69 percent of the population receiving treatment in Massachusetts this year under EMTALA's mandate. The article admits that "the state is projected to pay [only] $13.7 million of the cost of the health care program," while the bulk of it is covered by the federal government. Yet the article fails to report other offsets to this cost: A Perryman Group report from 2008 suggests that the undocumented in Massachusetts generate over 141 times as much in economic output as they cost in emergency medical expenses.
The Herald article is rife with other dubious claims, including:
- Reliance on quotes and unsupported figures provided by the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization with ties to one-time white supremacist John Tanton (see this MSNBC report).
- The implication that MassHealth Limited is an insurance program (it is not).
- Confusing inflation of the government's figures by a " Herald analysis."
- Failure to consider the costs that would be passed on directly to other hospital users without the current system.
"The Boston Herald seems to be attacking Massachusetts for following federal law, for protecting the health of the general public, and for honoring fundamental American values of decency to the injured, sick and dying," says Eva Millona, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA). "It is sad that public discourse about immigrants has fallen this far. With workable common-sense legal reforms addressing insurance for immigrants, we could lower emergency room costs without lowering our moral standards or threatening our economy. We hope in the future the Herald might use its significant resources to explore that high road instead."
-From “PRESS STATEMENT: Boston Herald: A Menace to Public Health?”, MIRA Coalition, October 27, 2010.
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