GOP senator fumes over Biden admin providing veteran medical resources to illegal immigrants

[Biden Admin Traitors]

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.

A White House official told Fox News Digital after publication that
Sen. Tuberville's comments were "completely false."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senator-fumes-over-biden-
admin-providing-veteran-medical-resources-illegal-immigrants