During a portion of an interview with NBC News aired on Friday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” Yuma Regional Medical Center President and CEO Dr. Robert Trenschel stated that the flow of people over the border has to be stopped because providing uncompensated care to migrants is draining the hospital of resources and that if the borders are going to be “open like they are, then there has to be a payment source for these individuals.”
During a report on the migrant situation in Yuma, AZ, NBC News National Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez said that, in the last year, “there have been more than 300,000 illegal border crossings in the area around Yuma. That’s three times the city’s entire population of nearly 100,000. It’s an all-time record.”
Gutierrez added, “The only hospital here estimates that, over six months, it’s doled out $20 million in uncompensated medical care to migrants.”
Gutierrez then played a clip of Trenschel saying, “We have to stop that border flow. If you’re going to have the borders open like they are, then there has to be a payment source for these individuals.”
Gutierrez also reported that local officials say they are not getting enough help from the federal government to deal with the situation and stated that the officials also “expect border crossings here to rise again over the next few months as temperatures cool.”
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