This is a well written long very important news article but worth your time to study and learn about one of our most important national problems.

 

Strained by illegals' 'free' health care, Texas hospital may have turned to 'birth tourism' to make up for the losses

A 2016 S&P report said the south Texas hospital was suffering from significant uncompensated care.

Monica Showalter | July 9, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

Seems everyone is piling on against a Texas hospital located in the Rio Grande Valley for its billboard advertising in Mexico for 'birth tourism.' 

President Trump has even asked the Supreme Court for a rehearing after its bad decision affirming this kind of birthright citizenship following news of the hospital's advertising campaign.

According to NewsNation:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered an investigation into a hospital near the Mexican border over concerns it was selling a path to American citizenship through childbirth packages.

The hospital advertised the packages across the border in Mexico but insists it did nothing illegal.

The billboard made it look almost as simple as booking a hotel room: Come to South Texas, have your baby and pay one set price.

A natural delivery started at $3,950, and a C-section started at $5,525.

The ad included a number for Mission Regional Medical Center and sent families to a website called “Have My Baby in Texas.”

Mission Regional Medical Center in the Rio Grande Valley confirmed the campaign was its own and reportedly began in 2021.

Mission Regional Medical Center offered full 'birth packages' to potential customers, despite Mexico itself having excellent and available health care at reasonable prices, not mentioning that their deal offered a little extra with guaranteed U.S. citizenship for those born in Texas, at a price that was reportedly cheaper than what other hospitals were charging in the U.S (as well as Mexico.) Many people online claimed that the pricing was less than what U.S. pregnant women are charged, perhaps to win more customers from the Mexican market, which, again, has good local health care at far more affordable prices, and thus, is a competitor, too.

Obviously, something is way wrong with hospitals trawling for business from the Mexican market, not offering a better product, but for the dangled, wink, wink, benefit of American citizenship, which shouldn't be theirs to give.

The Wayback Machine indicates it wasn't just Mission Regional enticing customers from abroad, by the way, but two other Texas hospitals, Knapp Medical Center, in Weslaco, and Harlingen Medical Center in Harlingen. The last screenshot, taken July 4 this year before it was shut down, had only Mission Regional and Knapp, both now owned by Prime Healthcare

Some screenshots:

 

 

From 2023:

 

From July 4, 2026:

 

To be honest, this isn't the worst birth tourism scheme I have ever heard of.

The creepy baby farm of Arcadia, California, where some Chinese billionaire just sent his sperm for surrogates in the states to have his babies, and then hundreds of these babies turning up in some mansion for who knows what purpose; or the Red Chinese army dispatching women to the Marianas to have their babies and then bring them back to Beijing for indoctrination on how to destroy America, strikes me as far worse abuses.

This is likely a convenience-citizenship for relatively wealthy Mexicans to return to Mexico, yet have the option of living here if they like, or having ease of crossing the border, or possibly obtaining benefits, though it seems less likely with this birth-tourism crowd as they are more affluent. Yes, it shouldn't be going on, but it's not the most grotesque manifestation of birth tourism and citizenship abuse.

What's disturbing is the potential story of the medical establishment as a border hospital, having to take in thousands of illegals with no payments.

I looked into one of these hospitals, Mission Regional, and found a sorry-looking 2016 credit report from Standard & Poor's which indicated that the hospital was getting its ratings cut, which affects its ability to borrow money, based on having to treat thousands of illegal border crossers for free:

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) May 20, 2016--S&P Global Rating lowered its

long-term rating on Hidalgo County Health Services Corp., Texas' $26.7 million

combined series 2005, 2007, and 2008 bonds, issued for Mission Regional

Medical Center (Mission) five notches to 'B-' from 'BB+' and removed the

ratings from CreditWatch. The outlook is negative.

 

"Mission was placed on CreditWatch with negative implications after fiscal

2015's substantial $12.5 million operating loss, and our expectation that the

medical center would breach its minimum debt service coverage covenant,

resulting in an event of default under the bond documents," said S&P Global

Ratings analyst Kevin Holloran.

 

Mission's reliance on supplemental sources of funding, including Medicaid

disproportionate share (DSH) and uncompensated care (UC) programs, were

largely responsible for improved (better than breakeven) financial performance

in fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2014, but without which, resulted in substantial

losses in fiscal 2015.

Uncompensated care? Yes, an open border means lots and lots of uncompensated care. 

While it may not be good for a hospital to seek birth-tourism from abroad as its new profit-center, it's seems pretty understandable that a hospital in illegals-flooded south Texas might do that out of desperation.

With illegals sending word back home at how good the health care is in the states, and communication channels already established through Mexican society, it might make sense to a marketing team to try to scarf up some of the wealthier parts of the Mexican market to make up the losses, the competitive advantage being U.S. citizenship on offer.

This, obviously, is just an impression from the S&P report and news reports about hospitals under severe financial strain from illegals seeking free treatment and hospitals being forced to give it, often without compensation.

But it would make sense if this is what it seems to be.

The bad thing is, they can offer birth-package discounts to Mexican customers, in order to draw that market in, but they would have to pass the costs of those discounts onto their domestic paying customers, even if the discounts were not nearly as deep as having to offer care for free to full-blown indigent illegals. 

So from two ends, Americans pay. I am not sure the hospital did anything wrong, either, given the birth tourism incentive embedded within the Supreme Court ruling. They may have just been taking their best option to survive. All the same, it disturbs Americans, and for many, it drives the point home about U.S. citizenship now being handed out like a consumer durable.

One can only hope that the Supreme Court will take up President Trump's requested rehearing. If this is what it takes to knock some sense into the more weak-kneed members of the Court, it's a good thing.