PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia could become the first city in the country to bar hospitals from returning undocumented patients to their home countries without express consent. City Council is scheduled to vote on the measure this Thursday — just one item on a hefty agenda for the final session of their four-year term.
The practice in question is formally known as medical repatriation, for uninsured foreign patients who need long-term care. But immigration advocates call it medical “deportation” or “international patient dumping.”
Andrianna Garcia testified in support of the bill at last week’s session, equating the practice to deportation.
“Medical deportation is typically not in the patient’s best interest and can result in serious injury or even death. Those who do survive may later pass away or face permanent disability or illness due to lack of care.”
The bill requires that hospitals inform patients, in their preferred language, about any plans to send them to their country of origin and get written consent before it could do so. It also requires that they research whether a hospital in the home country has the capacity to treat the patient and whether the patient qualifies for any medical assistance programs here. Reports would be filed with the Health Department.
The extent to which hospitals use it is unknown, but there was a case in Philadelphia in 2020 in which Jefferson Torresdale Hospital was preparing to return a patient, with extensive injuries sustained in an accident with a motorcycle, to Guatemala.
“We showed up at the hospital in the ambulance bay, ready—if we needed to—to lay down in front of those tires so they could not take that man,” said Jasmine Rivera of Free Migration Project, which succeeded in keeping the man in Philadelphia.
Rivera testified last week in support of the bill. She said she hopes it will be a model for other cities.
The bill must be signed by Mayor Jim Kenney in order to become law. He has not yet taken a position publicly. And neither of the city’s major health systems has responded to requests for comment.