HOUSTON — A local doctor's video is going viral on social media after he spoke out against the executive order requiring Texas public hospitals to collect information about undocumented immigrants and report healthcare costs. He wants everyone to know that patients do not have to answer the question.
The doctor says he never expected his video to go viral, he simply wanted to inform the community.
Dr. Tony Pastor is a Houston cardiologist. With over 1.1 million views and counting, he addresses how healthcare providers feel about Governor Abbott's new executive order. It requires hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status so the state can seek federal reimbursement.
"It's very frustrating part of being a doctor you take an oath to care for people. And we don’t really ask people where they come from," said Houston Cardiologist Dr. Tony Pastor.
He fears this is only going to hurt patients.
"It is basically isolating a group of people and making people scared to come in. it is a marginalized group seeks care later they are sicker when they do come in," said Pastor.
In the video, he tells patients they don’t have to answer the question if they feel uncomfortable.
"I fully believe hospitals health care should be immune form politics of the nation. We should be taken care of evidence base care not based on what politicians dictate," said Pastor.
An immigration attorney says they’ve been swamped with calls from worried clients about the order. The advice?
"It's not mandatory they don’t need to answer," said Naimeh Salem a Houston immigration attorney.
Salem says the hospitals will not release your personal info.
"HIPAA laws prevent the hospitals releasing to the government what kind of treatment they get. They don’t need to be afraid given addresses names or personal information they don’t need to worry about that," said Salem.
Both people we interviewed say immigrants needing medical help should seek it and shouldn’t be afraid to go to the hospital.