Dems Quietly Pull Back on Medicaid for Illegal Immigrants
By: Sally C. Pipes (National Review)
Is this why Chuck Schumer has shut down the government? Are Democrats only protecting shell games to suck more public money out of the Federal government? Taxes on insurers and medical providers are passed on to consumers. Then the state subsidizes insurance premiums and payments for individual care which hands the tax revenue back to the providers. The overall impact on the state's budget balances out but still increases eligibility for more Federal funds. And this round-robin shell game increases the cost of healthcare every year.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has earned no shortage of condemnation from progressive governors across the country. So it may be surprising that many blue-state leaders are quietly rolling back health coverage for people without legal status.
Over the past few months, Democratic governors in California, Minnesota, and Illinois have all arrived at the same conclusion: It’s not practical to offer taxpayer-funded health insurance to undocumented immigrants.
In addition to being wildly expensive, such open-ended largesse jeopardizes health care access for vulnerable U.S. citizens who need the safety net most — single mothers, pregnant women, the elderly, and the disabled.
Even the most vocal champions of undocumented immigration — including California Governor Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker — are acknowledging this reality. All three have either frozen or curtailed Medicaid coverage for these populations in recent months.
As Newsom recently said, “I don’t want to be in this position, but we are in this position.”
He has only himself to blame. Newsom, after all, has aggressively expanded eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s public health insurance program, over the past decade. Today, 1.6 million undocumented people residing in California are enrolled in Medi-Cal, which covers roughly 15 million people in total.
This expansion hasn’t come cheap. It’s estimated that the state spends $8.5 billion each year providing Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented residents.
Newsom has paid for some of his Medi-Cal expansion by employing some creative bookkeeping. He has levied taxes on Medi-Cal insurance providers, and then paid that money back to them — boosting overall state Medicaid spending, at least on paper.
Since the federal government matches whatever California pays for Medi-Cal, this strategy enables the state to extract additional funds from Washington — funds that can then be used to pay for coverage for undocumented immigrants.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law this past July 4, will curtail — but not eliminate entirely — these state provider tax schemes.
Money is only part of the problem with Newsom’s expansion. By flooding the health care system with a massive population of undocumented patients, Newsom’s policy has restricted the availability of care throughout California.
In 2024, roughly 40 percent of adults in the state couldn’t see a doctor for urgent health needs in accordance with the state’s “Wait Time Standards.”
It’s even harder to see a specialist. In Sacramento County, one in five enrollees had difficulty finding specialty care from providers like cardiologists, rheumatologists, and urologists in 2020 and 2021.
Newsom’s effort to add noncitizens to Medi-Cal’s rolls has only exacerbated care shortages.
The governor seems to be waking up to the mess he has made. His latest budget, signed in June, includes a freeze on new Medi-Cal sign-ups for immigrants residing in California without legal status. Undocumented patients who are already enrolled will have to pay a $30 monthly premium beginning in 2027.
The same story is playing out in Minnesota and Illinois.
In Minnesota, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers recently voted to eliminate undocumented adults’ eligibility for MinnesotaCare — the state’s taxpayer-funded insurance program for low-income residents. The state projects a budget shortfall of about $6 billion by 2028.
Governor Walz, who only in 2023 celebrated the “landmark” program’s expansion as a progressive milestone, agreed to the rollback as part of a broader budget deal to avoid deeper cuts elsewhere. The decision came amid growing concerns over fiscal sustainability and crowd-out effects on vulnerable American citizens.
Illinois followed suit. Governor Pritzker’s administration is preparing to eliminate the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, which offered public coverage to over 30,000 undocumented residents. Introduced in 2021, the program quickly outpaced cost projections and strained the state’s Medicaid infrastructure.
Illinois’ insurance programs for noncitizens cost taxpayers $682 million in 2024, while the state faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit this year.
Even the nation’s most progressive leaders are confronting the limits of their ideology. When reality hits — when budgets buckle and public systems falter — officials have to make hard choices. Quietly, they’re choosing to scale back benefits for the undocumented, even as they tout their progressive bona fides publicly.
Taxpayers deserve better than symbolic compassion backed by shell games and ballooning deficits. If public health safety nets are to survive and serve those they were built to protect — low-income families, children, seniors, and the disabled — then leaders must prioritize Americans over people here illegally.
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Medi-Cal is California's expanded Medicaid program under the ACA, providing health insurance to low-income individuals and families. It is a joint federal-state program that covers a wide range of medical services.
40% of California's population (15 million) is provided free or low-cost medical care through the Medi-Cal program. 10% of those covered by Medi-Cal are non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US -- illegal immigrants. Medi-Cal spends an average of $8,000 for each enrollee.
Medi-Cal's annual expenditures is approaching $190 billion. The Federal government's share to support Medi-Cal is $118 billion. The California General Fund provides $42 billion and other state/local sources provide $28 billion. Medi-Cal expenditures for non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US (illegal immigrants) is estimated to be $11 billion for this year.
Is this what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies have been defending? Have Democrats shut down government so that California (and other states) can game the Federal budget to provide insurance coverage for illegal immigrants?
That is insane!
What's really insane is the shell game to scrape more Federal public funds. California taxes insurance companies and medical provides anywhere from 3% to 5%. And the tax rates are higher for those providing insurance and services to Medi-Cal enrollees. The cost of those higher taxes are passed on to whoever pays the bills which, in this case, is the state of California.
So, the tax revenue and medical payments balance in a big circle (robbing Peter to pay Paul). That means California is spending more on healthcare each year (on paper) so are eligible for more matching Federal funds. California's shell game and money laundering scheme sound like something organized crime would do.
Turns out 49 states and the District of Columbia practice the same sort of shell game California uses to scrape more Federal public money.
In other words, the states have a way of directing the money the way they want. The politics of it is grotesque.
Yes, by taxing insurance providers, state governments can force increased premium prices that need to be subsidized. And the states can use the tax revenue to subsidize higher priced insurance premiums. It's essentially just a giant circle jerk intended to mislead voters and raid the Federal treasury.
When your talking point is a lie it makes it that much harder to justify your position. That's why most people are blaming republicans for the shut down.
No matter how many times you repeat it, asylum seekers are NOT illegal immigrants.
He didn't say asylum seekers, he said illegal immigrants.
Non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US are illegal immigrants. 10% of those covered by Medi-Cal are non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US (illegal immigrants). As the seed article points out Gov. Newsom and the California legislature are imposing limits to control enrollment of non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US (illegal immigrants).
No matter how many times the deflection is repeated, illegal immigrants really are being provided Medicaid coverage.
Those who have been paroled into the US are legally eligible for ACA insurance subsidies and Medicaid coverage. The parolees are not eligible to work but they are eligible to receive all manner of government assistance.
And asylum seekers ARE authorized.
Correct, because he failed to differentiate between them.
That is false. I did spell out that non-citizens who are not authorized to reside in the US are illegal immigrants in the previous sentence.
Just because you selectively choose quotes to destroy context doesn't excuse the lie.
The statement in the seeded article did not. Undocumented immigrants are not able to get healthcare from Medicaid or Medicare other than through emergency services.....PERIOD. Any claim otherwise is a lie.
The seeded article specifically states that 1.6 million undocumented people residing in California are enrolled in Medi-Cal. I verified that fact using Google search and Google Gemini.
Non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US (undocumented immigrants or illegal immigrants) are currently enrolled in California's expanded Medicaid program called Medi-Cal. Illegal immigrants really are being covered by Medicaid. That is a fact, not a lie.
Yes it is. Asylum seekers are able to enroll in Medi-Cal, not undocumented.
What part of " regardless of immigration status " is difficult to understand? Non-citizens without authorization to reside in the US (illegal immigrants) really are eligible for coverage by Medi-Cal.
Government money should not be given to non-Citizens
Unfortunately we give away BILLIONS to foreign countries.
The question is how on Earth did these idiots ever think their citizens would have no problem with taxpayer dollars going to illegals getting healthcare while many of their own citizens could not afford their own healthcare?
Or trump's golf trips...
When someone can't respond to a comment intelligently just say Trump seems to be on some playbooks
Or in this instance deflect to Trump with something unrelated.
TDS
You guys are still brining up Obama. Just stop.
What does that have to do with you deflecting to unrelated nonsense?