Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.
Salina Journal
A bill in the Legislature that would require many "safety net" clinics in Kansas to turn away patients who are in the country illegally wouldn't have any "direct" influence on the Salina Family Health Care Center, said interim CEO Dr. Rob Freelove.
And the word "direct" is there for a reason.
The health care provisions are just one small part of a broad immigration bill that would deny "public benefits" to illegal aliens, strengthen rules against companies hiring illegal aliens and require police to verify someone's citizenship when they're arrested.
A version of the bill passed the Senate 40-0 after some seven hours of debate that ended shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday. It still was being debated late Thursday in the House.
The Health Care Center, located in the former YWCA building at 651 E. Prescott, is one of 13 federally funded clinics in the state, Freelove said, while another 26 are state funded; the bill under consideration is worded to not interfere with federal health care rules.
"What it means is the other 26 will be burdened with proving citizenship status, before providing care," Freelove said, and that could have a number of indirect effects and unintended consequences.
Among them, Freelove said, is the likelihood that some patients of the state-funded clinics could start showing up at the doors of the federally qualified clinics.
Though no state-funded clinics are near Salina, Freelove said "The potential would be there to see some new ones (patients). We could probably absorb it, depending on the numbers.
"The real problem will be the hospitals in those towns (where the state clinics are)." Patients turned away from the state clinics likely would end up going to emergency rooms for treatment, which would push up health care costs.
And because of the new paperwork requirements at the clinics, Freelove said, migration away from the clinics would likely include more than just people in the country illegally. As word of the immigration checks spread, he said, it might discourage patients from coming to federally funded clinics, such as the one in Salina, where such checks wouldn't be performed.
"It may discourage some, both legal and illegal," he said. "In general, it may discourage people from seeking health care when they really should."
Lastly, Freelove said, those paperwork requirements would drive up the operating costs of the clinics it applies to.
"I think one unintended consequence would be the burden it would place on those safety net clinics, the need to hire someone, maybe more than one person, to check the status of every client," Freelove said. "That would be a huge cost; those clinics usually run very cost-effectively -- and I sure didn't see a provision in the bill to pay for the people to do the screenings."
n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.
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