Opinion Page: Nonprofit hospitals can fill gaps in care of undocumented immigrants

House Bill 588, which would have allowed immigrants without documentation to gain access to health coverage through the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, failed to gain approval in the General Assembly this year. This unfortunate result spells trouble for many state residents who are at high risk for delaying essential care. While advocates regroup to try again next session, what are families to do?

Nonprofit hospital systems can put into place a stopgap measure to help people who are ineligible for health insurance, such as people without documentation. These health systems can develop a robust charity care program, modeled on a program called The Access Partnership at Johns Hopkins Medicine. If adopted across the state, these programs can form a bridge to a true policy fix that would help thousands gain coverage.

At Hopkins, we routinely encounter patients and families in situations such as that of Verónica del Cid Gaitán. The Baltimore Banner reported that she delayed going to the hospital out of her fear of the costs. Recently, an Eastern European woman came to our hospital suffering from heart failure. Fluid filled her lungs and legs. She had run out of her diuretic (i.e., water pill) a month prior but waited until she could barely breathe to seek medical attention in the emergency room.

. . . 

darryll jones