Bill would require Arizona hospitals to ask whether patients are citizens

A bill is advancing in the Arizona Legislature that would require most Arizona hospitals to ask patients whether they are in the country legally.

Under Senate Bill 1051, any hospital that accepts payment from the state’s Medicaid program, AHCCCS, would have to include on patient admission forms a place to indicate citizenship status. The bill would also require the Arizona Department of Health Services to put together quarterly reports on the number of hospital admissions or emergency department visits made by patients who provided citizenship status or declined to answer.

Texas and Florida have enacted similar laws over the past three years.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers, said SB 1051 is simply about data collection.

“This is so that Arizonans know how much is being spent in hospitals for illegal aliens,” Rogers said during a Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing Jan. 28.

Patients’ answers to the citizenship question would not prevent anyone from getting care and patients’ citizenship status would not be shared with immigration authorities, Rogers said.

But opponents in the hearing brought up current heightened political tensions around Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said people might not seek important health care if they are faced with questions about their citizenship.

“SB 1051 does not improve care, it does not lower costs, it does not save lives, it teaches people to be afraid of hospitals,” Barbara Esquivel-Garcia, a nurse from Gilbert, testified during the hearing.

The bill passed through the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a 4-3 vote along party lines.

Even if it advances through the full Senate and House, it’s unlikely to become law. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year.