Karoline Leavitt refused to answer a question about whether emergency rooms should check the immigration status of dying patients before treating them.
The White House press secretary dodged the question multiple times when asked directly by a reporter Thursday.
“That’s probably not a question for me to answer. I think that’s a question for healthcare professionals and legal experts to answer,” Leavitt said.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, all Medicare-participating hospitals must provide a medical screening examination to anyone who comes to their emergency department.
This must be done regardless of their ability to pay, in order to determine if an emergency medical condition or active labor exists.
Leavitt’s remarks prompted outrage from medical professionals online. “In 18 years as an ER doc, I ask about immigration status about as often as I ask about insurance—which is never,” wrote Dr Craig Spencer.
“My job is to respond to the person in front me, as if neither immigration or insurance matters. Because in that moment, neither of those things matter. So tell me, what do Americans want me to do when the person dying before me is undocumented? Let them die?
“We should stop making this an argument about providing emergency care to certain populations… And start asking how it reflects on us all if we’re truly willing to withhold care in those moments of emergency, just because of what a piece of paper might or might not say.”
Amid the ongoing government shutdown Republicans have claimed that Democrats have been pushing for healthcare benefits for undocumented immigrants, who cannot legally access federal healthcare programs.
Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have blasted the claim as “a total, absolute, effing lie.”
Pressed by reporters Thursday, Leavitt went on to blame the Biden administration for an influx of illegal immigration which she said was taking away Medicaid benefits from “the most vulnerable people in our country.”
“What the Biden administration did is they allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens from all over the world to come into our country and they paroled them into the system… it was a complete abuse of our immigration system,” she said.
“And they slapped a band aid on these illegals. They called it temporary protective status, and then they allowed those illegals from all over the world to get free benefits. And you know, who would like free benefits, hard working Americans who work their butts off every day.”
She added: “We saw these illegals committing crimes all over our country, and they’re getting things for free. That is fundamentally unfair, and this administration is not going to support it.”
Asked once more whether people entering an ER having been shot or having had a stroke should have their immigration status checked before treatment, Leavitt replied: “I don’t speak for emergency rooms across the country, I speak for the President of the United States, and that’s what he believes on this policy.”
