Factchecking The White House “Mythbuster” on Medicaid Cuts and Immigrants

[Thiệu Ngô]

On June 2, 2025, The White House posted a “Mythbuster” fact sheet in defense of the House-passed reconciliation bill. However, the sheet is full of inaccuracies and advances more myths than facts—too many to cover in just one blog. This blog will focus on one prominent false claim, namely that 1.4 million undocumented immigrants will be removed from Medicaid.

By Leonardo Cuello

The White House fact sheet says that, under the House bill, Medicaid will better serve the American people “ by removing at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program.” This is unequivocally false.

As we have covered previously, comprehensive Medicaid coverage is not available to undocumented immigrants. The 1.4 million immigrants the White House presumably refers to are immigrants who will lose coverage due to reductions in state health care programs, funded by states and not by federal Medicaid dollars. The figure comes from various Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyses which find that the total loss of coverage under the House bill will include an “estimated 1.4 million people … covered under current law in programs funded by states.” (Emphasis added.) This state-funded coverage is not Medicaid. The White House’s claim that 1.4 million will be dropped from Medicaid is simply false. And, by the way, reducing state coverage for immigrants certainly won’t help Medicaid better serve Americans—it will increase the challenges for Medicaid and the entire health care system. Furthermore, some of the immigrants who lose state coverage will be in families that have U.S. citizens and will now face increased health care challenges and financial risks.

Now for the irony. The reason some states are expected to drop state coverage programs for these immigrants–mostly programs for low-income children–is that, under a penalty in the House bill, the states would be hit with huge cuts to their federal Medicaid funding if they don’t cut their state programs for lawfully present and undocumented immigrants. The cuts states are being threatened with to their federal Medicaid funding, however, is for standard Medicaid expansion coverage provided to U.S. citizens. In other words, in order to force states to drop state coverage for immigrants, the House bill threatens to cut federal funding for U.S.citizens. The CBO estimates that this provision in the House bill will save about $11 billion in federal spending; but this is not from the possible state reductions to immigrants, it is likely from assumed reductions in federal Medicaid expansion funding for U.S. citizens. In other words, not only does the penalty provision not reduce federal Medicaid funding for undocumented immigrants, but it would actually reduce federal Medicaid funding for citizens.

And that’s just the penalty provision. The rest of the House bill would take Medicaid coverage away from nearly 8 million everyday Americans—again, not undocumented immigrants—who certainly won’t be “better served” by Medicaid after the bill. The White House “Mythbuster” is mythology of the most dangerous kind.