GOP senator fumes over Biden admin providing veteran medical resources to illegal immigrants
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 8 months ago • 36 commentsBy: Brandon Gillespie (Fox News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., touted his recently introduced No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act that would ban VA resources from being used to process illegal migrant medical care claims.
President Biden is facing increased scrutiny over his administration providing health care administrative services to illegal migrants amid a worsening border crisis, potentially exacerbating long wait times for American veterans utilizing Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) facilities.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., touted his recently introduced No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act, which he introduced alongside Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., that would ban such action, one of the many problems he says are facing the country as a result of the border "disaster" taking place under Biden's watch.
"[Biden's] decided, OK, we've got to feed all these 10 million people we've let come across the border, we've got to house them, and we've got to give them health care," Tuberville said. "They've opened up care from the doctors in these [VA] community care systems. The lines now in the VA's are getting longer. Our funds that are supposed to go to the veterans are going to these illegal immigrants that are coming across."
Tuberville lamented that the VA was already not able to provide care for all 19 million veterans living across the country and that the community systems he mentioned had helped reduce wait times until the border crisis began to get worse.
The arrangement between the VA's Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to process claims for migrant medical care is a longstanding one that actually predates the Biden administration and was outlined in a 2020 memo during former President Trump's administration.
When an illegal migrant under ICE detention requires health care, they are typically treated onsite by medical professionals. However, if specialist or emergency care is required, they may be taken to an independent private provider.
In such cases, ICE contracts with the VA's Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) to process reimbursements to those providers. According to a report from July, ICE has hundreds of letters of understanding in which ICE's Health Service Corps (IHSC) will reimburse providers at Medicare rates. That uses the VA-FSC's Healthcare Claims Processing System, which a portal that allows providers to submit and view claims and access other resources.
The VA told Fox News Digital in December that it has had an interagency agreement with the IHSC since 2002 to provide processing, but it also noted that the department neither provides health care nor pays for it. Under the agreement with IHSC, ICE pays fees for the claims processing services rendered and covers disbursements made to pay for claims.
However, the crisis at the border, with record numbers of migrants crossing into the U.S. and needing medical care, has likely worsened what one former veterans' affairs adviser told Fox News Digital in December was a "history of a backlog of medical claims which has resulted in veterans getting bills they shouldn't be getting, and … having dissatisfied community care providers who are not getting paid in a timely manner."
Tuberville expressed hope that the bill could get some bipartisan support, considering the election year and that a number of Democrats up for reelection are running close races.
"I think we've got a great opportunity to get this, maybe not to a vote, but at least where we discuss it on the floor, where the American people start to understand it," he said. "An election year is a great year to try to get some kind of bipartisan help on any type of bill, especially when it comes to the veterans. That means so much to us here in our country."
Tuberville went on to blast the Biden administration's selling of border wall materials purchased under the previous administration rather than using them as a barrier to deter border crossings, and he blasted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who narrowly survived an impeachment vote last week, as a "globalist" who has no interest in walls or borders.
"If we don't get a guy like President Trump in office, heaven help us. I don't know what we're going to do," he added.
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Is anyone surprised that Biden would use VA resources for illegal migrants?
Not me.
Aren't sanctuaries using taxpayer money to cover migrant expenses already?
What's new in Lib Land?
Oh yes, starting with California, the left's Tomorrowland.
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Can you dispute it?
At some other time, my 4 week tryst with sciatica has left me unable to sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes. 50% of getting old is great, the other 50% sucks!
I found that deep tissue massage was helpful.
I soooo agree
I have arthritis in my lower back and PT doesn't even help.
My deep fissure ... er ... tissue masseuse divorced me.
Welcome back. I hope all is well.
TY ... I've discovered that a joint masks pain better than Tylenol but certainly makes me dopier.
It is funny how different things do the job and others have little effect. If I eat after a certain hour, I need TUMS to go to sleep.
In any event I'll have to stay on my toes now.
Really! Fuck Tuberville! Since when did he care about Veterans?
Well, all the more reason to get some younger, nurturing hands on that body and rub those aches away.
Think I'll stick with reading Lolita.
You will need to if you try wounding my heels. (gads that's an old pun)
Good one. I have a great story for you. I can't tell yet.
Dark and stormy night stuff under a street light I hope.
Same here.
It is more like the hen house being unguarded.
I hear Donald wants Lara to be the new 'foxy' guard.
You mean the RNC?
It is a little late for that.
How so, it only hit the news several hours ago?
Ronna McDaniel should have fought mail-in-voting back in early 2020 when Marc Elias was litigating voting laws in battleground states. She did little in that election and the two that followed. Elias won a war he shouldn't have. What good is replacing her now?
That's part A of a 2 part question for Donald, not me.
Well, you were away. I will fill you in soon.
He tried to do it before when he wanted to pull doctors and nurses to treat illegals at the border during the pandemic. He got shot down on that one. I guess he did not learn his lesson.
Biden does what others want done. I don't think he thinks about anything other than he is the only one who can beat Trump and Trump is the "bad one."
It is having an effect on health care in general in the US, as we should expect with having an increase in about 10 million uninsured "residents" within 3 years.
Biden wants to take good care of his Feral Cats
Schrödinger’s cats were feral. Someday I'll explain the slight.
I find that fucking hateful. I don't fucking care who says it.
I'm kind of torn over this one. We seriously need to stop the illegal crossings and severely restrict legal access until we get those already here sorted out. I'm not, however, for leaving them out in the cold. I don't like the VA being used this way but I understand it. There probably isn't another agency, public or private, that has the national coverage and reach the VA does.
Tuberville is a traitor who doesn't support our military, obviously.
That is not true
Yes, it is true.