Illegal Immigration Forcing Denver Hospital to Turn Away Patients: ‘Going to Break’ the System

Illegal immigration is forcing a Denver, Colorado hospital to turn away patients as illegal aliens overwhelm the system with unpaid medical bills, a local report details.

According to the Denver Post, the city’s hospital system, known as Denver Health, is on the brink of collapse as waves of illegal aliens arrive without any means of paying for medical treatment.

The Post reports:

In 2023, Denver Health provided about $136 million in care that it didn’t receive compensation for, CEO Donna Lynne told the Denver City Council’s finance and government committee last week. That figure includes care to people covered by Medicaid when the rates the program paid didn’t cover the full costs, she said. About $100 million of that went to people living in Denver. [Emphasis added]

…

Denver Health cut costs last year by closing 15 beds that could be used for patients needing psychiatric or addiction treatment, reducing the raises it had planned as a way to retain employees, and postponing renovations on its oldest clinics, Lynne said. [Emphasis added]

…

“What I think is not being said is that Denver Health is at a critical, critical point, and that we need to take this up in 2024,” she said. “Because our costs exceed our revenues, we are turning down patients every day, particularly in the area of mental health and substance abuse.” [Emphasis added]

Denver Health CEO Donna Lynne told the Post that in 2023, about 8,000 border crossers and illegal aliens living in Denver made some 20,000 visits to the hospital system — costing local taxpayers millions in unpaid medical bills.

Lynne said illegal immigration to Denver is “going to break” the city’s hospital system.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, illegal immigration often sticks American taxpayers with billions in unpaid medical costs that drive hospital systems to the brink. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that illegal immigration costs the nation’s hospital systems at least $23 billion annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.