Democrats Take Heat Over Health Care for Illegal Aliens

As the government appears to be barreling towards a shutdown, which will begin at midnight, Democrats are facing criticism over their alleged support for health care subsidies to noncitizens residing in the United States. 

The Democrat continuing resolution bill would revoke Subtitle B in Title VII of the One Big Beautiful Act (OBBA), effectively restoring accessibility to some government benefits to certain noncitizens including inadmissible aliens granted parole for at least one year. That subsection of the Act had limited government health care benefits to American citizens, “(1) LPRs [lawful permanent residents]; (2) certain Cuban and Haitian immigrants; and (3) COFA [Compact of Free Association] migrants lawfully residing in the U.S.” The subtitle also restricts Medicare eligibility, and premium tax credits by restricting it to the four groups defined above.

The expansion of benefits to potentially reward illegal aliens with taxpayer dollars stands in stark contrast to points Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. made decades ago in Congress.

“All over where we go, people say, well, can’t you stop illegal immigrants or others from coming here? And the number one answer we give our constituents is, when they come here, they can get jobs, get benefits against the law because of fraud,” Schumer, then a New York congressman, said in a speech on the House floor in 1996. A clip from that speech was reposted by Vice President JD Vance on X on Tuesday who wrote, “Chuck Schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens rewards for breaking the law. Now he wants to shut down the government unless we … reward illegal aliens for breaking the law.”

In 2019 during a Democrat presidential primary debate, each candidate raised their hands in support of giving illegal aliens health coverage. That group of candidates included Joe Biden, Pete Buttigeig, Andrew Yang, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (who now represents Colorado in the Senate), Marianne Williamson, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Co., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

In June several Democrat senators including Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., reintroduced legislation in the upper chamber to allow illegal aliens to participate in Obamacare marketplaces and to create the possibility for states to expand Medicaid and CHIP to aliens not in the country lawfully.

“Health care is a human right—regardless of a person’s immigration status. With this critical legislation, we remove cruel, unnecessary barriers preventing immigrants from receiving the care they need to survive and thrive. By providing access to quality care and treatment, we strengthen our communities and bolster our nation’s public health,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., stated in a press release about the bill.

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