This sums up the Democrat party for you: House Dems just voted to upgrade medical care for illegal immigrants and against enhancing medical care for veterans that served our nation at war!
The bill that was just passed by the House sets up an electronic health record system for illegal aliens, who must be registered on it within 30 days of being apprehended at the border. It also will establish timelines for medical evaluations and improve the standards for care, overall.
U.S. veterans have been seeking out a similar electronic records system for years, but in the press release announcing that the bill for illegal immigrants was passed, it was announced that this will not be implemented for at least 9 years for vets!
American Military News has more to say about Dems putting illegal immigrants ahead of war veterans:
In a Thursday decision, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to implement new interconnected medical records system for migrants, ahead of efforts to implement those same medical systems for U.S. military veterans.
The House passed the bill, H.R. 3525, U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening Standards Act, on a vote of 230-184. The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol officials to implement an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system, and store and report electronic health records to Congress for all migrants apprehended at the border, according to The Hill.
“The Veterans Administration (VA) will not have similar electronic health records systems in place for nine years and the Department of Defense (DOD) will not have those systems for another five years,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) said in a press release following the vote.
“When I was at the border I saw busy, overworked Border Patrol officials having to keep health records on paper. I also saw how these records don’t follow migrants between facilities and transfers of custody,” the bill’s sponsor, Freshman congresswoman Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), said before the House floor vote.
Critics of the bill pointed out that those same busy Border Patrol agents would have to implement the EHR system within a timeframe of months, whereas similar efforts to implement EHR systems in the Department of Defense and hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs which together will take 10 years and $25 billion to implement.
“If we cannot deliver a modern medical record for the men and women who put their lives on the line for us sooner than that, it is impossible to think that we could or should deliver one in a month for those who knowingly enter our country illegally,” Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) said in a press release. “We should not treat anyone, particularly someone who breaks our laws, better than we treat our heroes.”
The Hill added:
The Democrat-backed bill, which passed in a 230-184 vote, would establish timelines for medical screenings and improve overall health standards. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Fred Upton (Mich.) were the only Republicans to vote in favor of the legislation.
The U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening and Standards Act — introduced by freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) — includes language that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish an electronic health record system for those apprehended at the border within 30 days of implementation and submit a report to Congress on recommendations for improving screenings.
“When I was at the border I saw busy, overworked Border Patrol officials having to keep health records on paper. I also saw how these records don't follow migrants between facilities and transfers of custody,” Underwood said on the House floor ahead of the vote.
“As DHS works to improve its medical screening of children and migrants at the border to ensure there is a minimum standard of care, the need for proper record keeping on those screenings will only increase,” she added.
Critics of the legislation say the focus should be on preventing border crossings and moving detainees out of Border Patrol custody and into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
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