WASHINGTON — The people of the United States are arguably what make The United States the pinnacle of global democracy. Politicians in Washington are unable to agree on the social programs people need in order to live a productive and happy life leading to a possible shutdown of the Government.
With Congress at an impasse over federal spending, Republicans have emerged with a new and misleading talking point: Democrats are shutting down the government to fund free health care for immigrants in the country illegally.
It is a message repeated by Vice President JD Vance, the official X account of Senate Republicans and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Democrats’ budget proposal seeks to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, and roll back Medicaid cuts in the tax cut and domestic policy law signed by President Donald Trump in July. But the proposal does not provide free health care for immigrants in the country illegally.
Those immigrants are largely barred from federally funded health care programs. They cannot buy health care plans on government exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act and therefore cannot receive any subsidies. They are also ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Democrats’ budget proposal does not make them eligible for these programs.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, acknowledged this disconnect in a statement. “Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage under existing law or Democrats’ funding proposal — but millions of American citizens will see their health care premiums double next year if Republicans keep refusing to act,” she said.
Republicans may be referring to the law changing the eligibility requirements for certain immigrant groups. Under the tax cut and domestic policy law, certain groups of “lawfully present” immigrants are no longer eligible for Obamacare subsidies. The Democrats’ proposal would restore that eligibility.
There is no uniform definition for “lawful presence,” a term typically used by federal and state health care and social welfare programs to determine eligibility. Most groups of “lawfully present” noncitizens have authorized or legal immigration status like refugees and asylum recipients, but the term can also include immigrants whose legal status is more complicated, like those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Three Republican committee chairs said in a September news release that the Biden administration had abused “‘lawful presence’ definitions” and, citing an August analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said that the Republican law would revoke subsidy eligibility from “1.2 million illegal immigrants or noncitizens.” The CBO did estimate that 1.2 million people would lose subsidies and their health care coverage as a result of the eligibility restrictions, but it did not characterize those immigrants as in the country illegally.
Separately, the federal government does reimburse hospitals for providing emergency care to low-income immigrants in the country illegally who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid. The Republicans’ tax cut and domestic policy law reduced the amount that hospitals receive for emergency services provided to certain immigrants in states that expanded Medicaid, but it did not eliminate funding altogether.
More than a dozen states provide government-funded health care for low-income children regardless of their immigration status, and seven states also provide that coverage for low-income adults, according to a breakdown by health care nonprofit KFF. But those programs are state-funded and are not affected by the federal funding currently debated in Congress.
Earlier versions of the tax cut and domestic policy bill reduced federal funding for those states, but those provisions did not appear in the final version of the bill because of Senate rules.
Linda Qiu wrote this article that originally appeared in The New York Times. Image courtesy of Doug Mills from The New York Times. Some editorial content added by Don Hughes of NetNewz.tv.
