Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened final week to revoke authorities funding from a youngsters’s hospital in response to a Houston physician’s viral TikTok advising sufferers to skip a citizenship query on consumption kinds.
Abbott issued an government order in early August requiring hospitals that take Medicaid or Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Plan to ask sufferers “Are you a U.S. citizen?” on particular consumption kinds. The brand new order went into impact on Nov. 1.
Dr. Tony Pastor, a heart specialist at Texas Youngsters’s Hospital and assistant professor at Baylor Faculty of Medication in Houston, took to TikTok on Nov. 11 to let his viewers know that he and different employees on the hospital have been informed that individuals didn’t need to reply the brand new query, regardless of the manager order.
His video went viral, garnering over a million views earlier than it was taken down.
“So my proposal to everybody who’s seeing that is, simply know that you simply would not have to reply this query,” Pastor mentioned within the now-deleted video.
Abbott responded in an accusatory Nov. 24 X publish, warning the hospital that it may lose its funding due to Pastor’s feedback.
viral TikTok telling folks they don’t have to reply the
citizenship query.
“Hey Texas Youngsters’s Hospital & Baylor Faculty of Medication this physician is placing your Medicaid & Medicare funding in danger. [You] higher assume twice & have crystal clear information,” Abbott wrote.
“There can be penalties for failing to comply with the legislation within the Order.”
Pastor posted a short response to the governor’s obvious threats on Nov. 26.
“When the gov of Texas threatens you on twitter as a result of he’s mad you exercised freedom of speech,” Pastor captioned a TikTok publish.
“This new legislation that’s asking hospitals for immigration standing is beneath the guise of attempting to get knowledge on how a lot cash we’re spending on undocumented sufferers,” he mentioned in one other video posted simply days earlier than Abbott’s response.
A consultant for the Texas Youngsters’s Hospital wrote in a assertion that they are going to be complying with Abbott’s government order, and insisted that Pastor’s stance doesn’t replicate all the hospital.
“Texas Youngsters’s totally helps Governor Abbott’s new Government Order and is in full compliance. We’ve got labored intently with the Texas Hospital Affiliation and our trade companions throughout the state to make sure compliance upfront of the efficient date,” the spokesperson wrote.
“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 are going to proceed to prioritize affected person care whereas guaranteeing we’re in full compliance with all legal guidelines and authorized directives.”
In the meantime, different medical and advocacy teams throughout the state have been doling out the identical recommendation as Pastor.
“You would not have to reply the citizenship query for those who don’t wish to. Your reply is not going to have an effect on your care — you’ll not be turned away,” a flyer posted by the San Antonio Metropolitan Well being District reads.
“You’ve a proper to life-saving care, no matter citizenship or immigration standing.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has additionally chimed in and agrees that sufferers aren’t legally required to answer the brand new query.
Texas Youngsters’s Hospital has beforehand complied with the state’s orders, together with halting hormone-related prescriptions for transgender children in 2022 following Abbott’s instruction for Little one Protecting Companies to research dad and mom and medical doctors granting transgender youth gender-affirming care.
