Below is a joint statement from the AAMC, American Hospital Association, America’s Essential Hospitals, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, the Children’s Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals on the final rule from the Department of Homeland Security regarding changes to the definition of public charge:
"Hospitals and health systems want work every day to ensure patients have access to the care they need, including through public health programs, when they need it. Public health programs play an important role in helping us achieve this mission. This rule could undermine access to care for legal immigrants by discouraging the use of critical public programs like Medicaid. We are concerned that this could lead to delays in care that would negatively impact the health of the communities we serve. We ask the administration to withdraw this harmful rule."
The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members are all 154 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their more than 173,000 full-time faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.