House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to blame Democrats for the government shutdown, using misleading Republican talking points that insist that Democratic leadership is pushing to fund health care for undocumented immigrants.
By Peter Wade
Johnson said today on CBS’ Face the Nation that Democrats “want to spend $1.5 trillion, and they want to return hard-working taxpayer dollars to fund health care for illegal aliens. It is in their bill. Go to speaker.gov and see it for yourself. Page 57, section 2141. They’re using this for political games, and it is shameful, and real people are getting hurt.”
“I have looked at that text,” host Margaret Brennan replied. “It doesn’t explicitly say what you are indicating.”
We went to the speaker’s site, which links to the Democratic proposal. The specific section Johnson mentioned — section 2141 on page 57 — repeals the changes to Medicaid made by Trump and the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Brennan’s pushback got Johnson to admit that he’s not just talking about “illegal aliens” but also noncitizens, as in people here legally. It’s an important distinction.
“It’s a compelling talking point to say that Democrats want to provide health care to undocumented immigrants, but it’s just not true in terms of the cuts they’re trying to reverse,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonprofit and nonpartisan health policy information organization, told The Associated Press.
It’s important to note that undocumented immigrants broadly do not qualify for Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies, or other federally-funded health care coverage.
“Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally-funded health coverage,” Drishti Pillai, director of Immigrant Health Policy at KFF, wrote. “The GOP’s Big Beautiful Bill didn’t change that. Overturning the health care provisions in the law won’t either.”
Further, under the OBBBA, many lawfully present immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid — such as asylum seekers, refugees, and survivors of human trafficking — will be rendered ineligible for the program in 2026 thanks to a section of the law titled “Alien Medicaid eligibility.” If that provision stays in place, then next year, approximately 1.4 million immigrants lawfully in the U.S. will lose health care coverage because Republicans severely restricted access to lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian immigrants, and citizens of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. Democrats are pressing to reverse that.
Johnson also claimed on NBC’s Meet the Press: “What the Democrats are demanding is that illegal aliens that care for them in an emergency room should be reimbursed at a higher rate.”
Hospitals may be reimbursed for emergency room care given to undocumented immigrants due to a Reagan-era law (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) that requires emergency rooms provide screening exams and stabilization care to everyone who comes through their doors seeking care, regardless of immigration status. Under the OBBBA, those reimbursements will decrease. Hospitals would still be obligated to deliver care to everyone, but they will not receive the same amount as they would have before OBBBA, also known as H.R. 1.
“H.R. 1 reduces the federal matching funds for states for some of this emergency care,” explained Leonardo Cuello, research professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families. “This provision does not actually change coverage for immigrants, and indeed the CBO scored it as having no impact on coverage, because hospitals must still provide the health care, and states must still pay them for the health care, it’s just that the federal government will pay a smaller share of the cost. In other words, it’s just a cut to federal funding for states to reimburse providers furnishing emergency services (which is still required).”
Johnson on NBC accused Democrats of wanting to “to claw back $50 billion that we put in for rural hospitals to prop them up,” but that funding only offsets approximately one-third of the federal Medicaid funding that rural hospitals lost due to the OBBBA. Fully restoring Medicaid funding to rural hospitals would do more for them than the GOP’s five-year temporary rural health fund.
Democrats are also insisting on extending federal subsidies for people who purchase coverage through the ACA marketplace. If Republicans get their way, and those subsidies are lost, then ACA premiums could more than double. An estimated 10 million Americans, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, could lose their health insurance between the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and the loss of subsidies.
Democrats are also insisting on extending federal subsidies for people who purchase coverage through the ACA marketplace. If Republicans get their way, and those subsidies are lost, then ACA premiums could more than double. An estimated 10 million Americans, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, could lose their health insurance between the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and the loss of subsidies.
As the shutdown over these issues approaches its second week, according to a Washington Post poll, nearly half of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the government shutdown — with 47 percent blaming the GOP and president — while less than a third (30 percent) believe congressional Democrats are responsible for it.
