Arizona Border Hospital Faces Financial Crisis After Treating So Many Illegal Immigrant Patients

A hospital close to Arizona’s southern border is in financial trouble as a result of the large number of illegal immigrants entering the country, and its president and CEO is now turning to the media to help raise awareness of the problem because so many political leaders have refrained from doing so.

The sole hospital within 60 miles of Yuma, Arizona’s border town, is Yuma Regional Medical Center, whose president and CEO is public health specialist Dr. Robert Transchel. Transchel and Rachel Campos-Duffy discussed the hospital’s financial struggles on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday. They talked about how the institution has been struggling financially for at least the past 12 months.

“We tracked our uncompensated care for a period of over six months and we calculated that we’ve provided over $20 million in uncompensated care to the migrants crossing the border.”

Transchel noted that many patients do not pay for the care they receive and that the hospital has had to hire more employees to handle the increased patient load. Last year, Yuma Regional saw 4,400 more patients than the year before.

Additionally, some illegal immigrants need specialized care that Yuma Regional cannot give. As a result, the hospital is responsible for the cost of the patients’ transportation to other hospitals, often by air ambulance.

Transchel asserted that he and other hospital administrators have contacted numerous politicians at the municipal, state, and national levels, including Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, but to no avail.

“Everybody is sympathetic, and everybody lends a listening ear, but nobody has a solution,” Transchel added.

Additionally, Transchel informed Campos-Duffy that while local Arizonans must pay for all of the medical treatments they receive and occasionally even have their care delayed when the hospital is inundated with migrant patients, illegal aliens frequently receive free medical care.