{"id":204118,"date":"2025-10-06T00:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204118\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T00:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:14:12","slug":"mike-johnsons-biggest-lies-about-health-care-and-undocumented-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204118\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Johnson\u2019s Biggest Lies About Health Care and Undocumented Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHouse Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> continued to blame Democrats for the government shutdown<\/a>, using misleading Republican talking points that insist that Democratic leadership is pushing to fund health care for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson said Sunday on CBS\u2019s Face the Nation that Democrats \u201cwant 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\u2019re using this for political games, and it is shameful, and real people are getting hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have looked at that text,\u201d host Margaret Brennan replied. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t explicitly say what you are indicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson: They want to fund healthcare for illegal aliens. It is in their bill. <\/p>\n

Brennan: I have looked at that text. It doesn\u2019t explicitly say what you are indicating<\/p>\n

Johnson: Yes, it does pic.twitter.com\/fnrGvBdPPR<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Acyn (@Acyn) October 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tWe went to the Speaker\u2019s site, which links to the Democratic proposal<\/a>. The specific section Johnson mentioned \u2014 section 2141 on page 57 \u2014 repeals the changes to Medicaid<\/a> made by Trump and the Republicans\u2019 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Brennan\u2019s pushback got Johnson to admit that he\u2019s not just talking about \u201cillegal aliens\u201d but also non-citizens, as in people here legally. It\u2019s an important distinction.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a compelling talking point to say that Democrats want to provide health care to undocumented immigrants, but it\u2019s just not true in terms of the cuts they\u2019re trying to reverse,\u201d Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonprofit and nonpartisan health policy information organization, told<\/a> the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s important to note that undocumented immigrants broadly do not qualify<\/a> for Medicaid, Affordable Care Act<\/a> subsidies, or other federally-funded health care coverage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUndocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally-funded health coverage,\u201d Drishti Pillai, director of Immigrant Health Policy at KFF, wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe GOP\u2019s Big Beautiful Bill didn\u2019t change that. Overturning the health care provisions in the law won\u2019t either.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFurther, under the OBBBA, many lawfully present immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid \u2014 such as asylum seekers, refugees, and survivors of human trafficking \u2014 will be rendered ineligible for the program in 2026 thanks to a section of the law titled \u201cAlien Medicaid eligibility.\u201d If that provision stays in place, then next year, approximately 1.4 million immigrants<\/a> lawfully in the U.S. will lose health 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.<\/p>\n

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\n\tJohnson also claimed on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press: \u201cWhat the Democrats are demanding is that illegal aliens that care for them in an emergency room should be reimbursed at a higher rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welker: Are you suggesting that ER doctors check people’s immigration status before they render emergency care?<\/p>\n

Johnson No. Again, it’s another red herring. What the Democrats are demanding is that illegal aliens that care for them in an emergency room should be reimbursed at a\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/TxX4Zeb7ga<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Acyn (@Acyn) October 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHospitals 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<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cH.R. 1 reduces the federal matching funds for states for some of this emergency care,\u201d explained<\/a> Leonardo Cuello, research professor at Georgetown University\u2019s McCourt School of Public Policy\u2019s Center for Children and Families. \u201cThis 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\u2019s just that the federal government will pay a smaller share of the cost. In other words, it\u2019s just a cut to federal funding for states to reimburse providers furnishing emergency services (which is still required).\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tJohnson on NBC accused Democrats of wanting to \u201cto claw back $50 billion that we put in for rural hospitals to prop them up,\u201d but that funding only offsets approximately one-third<\/a> 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\u2019s five-year temporary rural health fund.<\/p>\n

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\n\tDemocrats 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<\/a>. An estimated 10 million Americans<\/a>, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, could lose their health insurance between the GOP\u2019s Medicaid cuts and the loss of subsidies.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the shut down over these issues approaches its second week, according to a Washington Post poll<\/a>, nearly half of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the government shut down \u2014 with 47 percent blaming the GOP and president \u2014 while less than a third (30 percent) believe congressional Democrats are responsible for it. <\/p>\n