South Carolina Senator-elect Dr. Annie Andrews is drawing renewed attention for an earlier response to Vice President JD Vance, challenging his remarks about undocumented immigrants receiving emergency medical treatment.
Andrews, a pediatrician who defeated Republican Darline Graham in South Carolina’s November 3 Senate election, made history as the first woman elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. Her victory also ended a 28-year stretch without a Democratic Senate win in South Carolina.
But a video statement she delivered before the election offers another look at the health care debate she is preparing to enter in Washington.
Vance had questioned why undocumented immigrants receive treatment in American emergency rooms.
“The emergency room waiting is an illegal alien, very often a person who can’t even speak English,” Vance said, according to the remarks quoted in the circulated video. “Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?”
Andrews responded by describing the responsibilities that come with practicing medicine.
“So, J.D., I have some news for you,” she began.
“Physicians, me and all my physician colleagues all across this country, we’re not like you. We chose a profession where we wake up every day to help people.”
She continued:
“We’re not self-serving. Nothing you can say or do is ever going to stop one of my physician colleagues from providing care to a sick or injured person who shows up at the doorsteps of an emergency department.”
Andrews then pointed to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, commonly known as EMTALA.
Signed into law during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in 1986, EMTALA generally requires covered hospital emergency departments to provide an appropriate medical screening examination and necessary stabilizing treatment to patients experiencing emergency medical conditions, regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status.
“Also, side note, emergency departments are legally required to provide emergency care to anyone who shows up at their doors because of a law called EMTALA,” Andrews said.
She emphasized that the law was enacted under a Republican president before delivering her most direct challenge to Vance.
“And I dare you, I dare you to try to stand in the way of an emergency medicine physician and a sick or injured patient.”
The law does not guarantee unlimited free medical care, but it establishes important protections for patients seeking emergency treatment.
Andrews argued that physicians’ obligations to their patients should not depend on the political debate over immigration.
“We’re not like you. This isn’t about us. This is about our patients,” she said.
“And I can see how it’s hard for you to imagine that there’s a whole profession out there, a whole profession out there that wakes up every day to help people regardless of what it does to personally benefit us.”
She concluded by urging more physicians to seek elected office.
“Let’s elect more doctors to the House and the Senate and state houses all across this country.”
Andrews’ own election now places her in the Senate, where health care policy, immigration enforcement and the obligations of medical providers remain subjects of national debate.
Her earlier remarks do not represent a new exchange with Vance following the election. Instead, they illustrate a position she expressed before voters sent her to Washington: that emergency medical care must remain available to patients who need it, regardless of immigration status.
SOURCES
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