Amid government spending negotiations, President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders are accusing Democrats of demanding free health care for “illegal aliens” in return for their support of a federal funding bill.
“The Democrats want Illegal Aliens, many of them VIOLENT CRIMINALS, to receive FREE Healthcare,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last week.
“Democrats are about to shut down the government because they demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X last week.
But Trump and Vance’s assertions are not true. The Democrats are drawing a line in the sand over health care, but it doesn’t involve undocumented immigrants.
The Democrats are pushing to continue more generous federal subsidies to help Americans afford Obamacare policies and to reverse deep cuts to Medicaid contained in Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda package. But neither of those changes would provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants, since they aren’t eligible for either program.
The Democrats’ top priority is extending the enhanced federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage. The beefed-up assistance, which was enacted as part of the Biden administration’s Covid-19 rescue package in 2021, is set to expire at the end of this year. If it lapses, premiums for Obamacare policies in 2026 are expected to skyrocket by more than 75%, on average, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
The enhanced subsidies have enabled many...
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