Republicans keep fibbing about health care for ‘illegal aliens.’ Why? | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Republicans falsely claim Democrats demand healthcare for undocumented residents.
- Federal law prohibits federal healthcare benefits for undocumented immigrants.
- Democrats seek restoration of Medicaid funds and ACA subsidies for citizens.
A blatant lie by Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans was used to paint Democrats as wanting to get hundreds of billions of dollars to provide free health care for undocumented residents in exchange for their vote to avert a federal government shutdown.
Now that we have a shutdown, go ahead and blame the Democrats for a nonexistent demand.
Even President Donald Trump — surprise, surprise — spews out wrong information. On Tuesday, a reporter asked him to clarify the issue. “What are you talking about when you say Democrats want to protect (undocumented immigrants’) health care?,” he was questioned.
“So when an illegal person comes in, a person who came into our country illegally, therefore breaking the law, and look, we all have big hearts. I have a bigger heart than you do,” Trump said. “Uh, they’re all breaking the law, and they’re coming into our country. And we just as a country cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken the law coming in.”
OK, that was not an answer. Let’s continue with his answer.
“We want them to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally. Now we have a strong border, a very strong border, thanks to Kristi (Noem) and Tom Homan and the whole group,” Trump continued. “They’ve done an amazing job at the border. We had a border that was a disaster.
“They were coming in by the millions. I say 25 million people came in illegally. And no system can take care of the health care of all those people that came in.”
I prefer a president who answers the question instead of dancing around it.
GOP spews misinformation
“Democrats want to shut down the government because we won’t give free benefits to illegal aliens,” Vance said in a Sept. 26 interview on FOX News. “We’re not going to be taken hostage by the Democrats’ desperate desire to give your tax money to illegal aliens. We’re just not going to do it.”
Johnson, appearing Monday on CNN and FOX News, suggested Democrats preferred health care for the undocumented over pay for the military.
“You know the people who are serving in the military, they don’t get paid during a shutdown,” said Johnson. Trump “doesn’t want WIC funding, women, infants and children’s nutrition program, being held up.
“That’s what (Democratic Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer is holding hostage … he wants to reinstate free health care for illegal aliens paid by American taxpayers. We are not doing that.”
Senate Republicans, in their X account, said Democrats’ “ransom demand” includes free health care for undocumented residents.
I’m fed up with Republicans wrongly pointing at undocumented immigrants as the source of this country’s problems. The GOP gladly accuses them — without any proof — of eating people’s pets, increasing crime or not paying taxes.
What’s even worse is that people still fall for this pile of bovine discharge.
The Democrats’ want to bring back billions in Medicaid cuts created by the One Big Beautiful Bill and extend Affordable Care Act Marketplace subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. This would benefit American citizens, not undocumented people. Experts have warned the cuts will kick 10 million people off Medicaid by 2034, and that subsidy elimination will add up to 7 million more to the uninsured roll.
Speaker repeats wrong information
On Tuesday, Johnson went live on CNBC to accuse Democrats of favoring health care for the undocumented. “They put it in writing,” said Johnson. “They brought this up in the meeting yesterday. They want to restore taxpayer-funded benefits, American taxpayer-funded benefits, to illegal aliens.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said such talk “is an outright lie.”
“Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to provide medical coverage to undocumented individuals,” said Jeffries on CNBC. “There is nothing in anything that we have proposed that is trying to change that law.”
Jeffries is right. Undocumented residents are largely banned from the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program that are funded by the federal government.
California allows undocumented residents to enroll in Medi-Cal and other health coverage, but the state picks up the $8.5 billion annual cost to cover 1.6 million undocumented immigrants.
Republicans need to move beyond scapegoating undocumented immigrants. At least be more believable.
This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 8:13 AM with the headline "Republicans keep fibbing about health care for ‘illegal aliens.’ Why? | Opinion."