Illegal migrants have cost the state’s hospitals more than one billion dollars in unpaid care — greatly surpassing previous estimates — data from Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) shows.
The data comes from the requirements implemented after an order was signed in August 2024 by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. In the state’s first report of its kind the HHSC found that nearly $122 million was spent on illegals in November 2024, but that estimate was deemed low since the reporting was just ramping up at the time. The HHSC reported that people who were “not legally present” in the United States utilized hospitals in the Lone Star State more than 31,000 time during that month.
As expected, the most recent report showed a huge amount of resources used by illegals.
The new report shows that illegals made 313,742 hospital visits in FY 2025, costing the state $1.05 billion. The largest portion of that amount, some $565 million, was spent on “inpatient discharges for non-Medicaid and non-CHIP patients,” according to Texas Scorecard.
Emergency room visits amounted to $230 million and inpatient care totaled $820 million, showing that longer-term care is eating up a large portion of the expenditures.
This is not even a full fiscal year of reporting, so the numbers will most likely only climb next year. The new report is missing the first two months of the fiscal year — September and October — because the reporting system had only recently been implemented.
Last July, the state revealed that more than 100,000 patients who visited Lone Star State hospitals were illegals.
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