Galveston County Daily News, July 17, 2009
In this editorial, Heber Taylor, editor of the Galveston newspaper, writes that many people have a fundamental misunderstanding about the proposed hospital district if they believe that illegal immigrants would be the beneficiaries. "Could the money generated by the hospital district be restricted to legal residents of the hospital district? Absolutely. The Galveston County Health District uses similar restrictions in other health-care programs. People who want to qualify for treatment have to fill out paperwork and show proof of eligibility every six months. If you're trying to picture the folks who benefit from this program, forget about illegal immigrants. Picture instead legal residents who work in the tourism industry or for construction contractors. Many of those folks work hard - many work more than one job. But they don't have insurance."