WASHINGTON—About 1.4 million illegal immigrants are enrolled in Medicaid, something House Republicans hope to change.
To the White House, this is a clear instance of lawmakers eliminating fraud and saving taxpayers’ money. But to Democrats, it’s the worst of all possible things: Republican attempts to cut Medicaid.
A provision in the budget reconciliation currently being debated on Capitol Hill would block anyone from receiving Medicaid if they cannot verify immigration status, nationality, or citizenship.
“We’re making sure no illegals are going to be in the program,” Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter told The Daily Signal. “We are making sure people aren’t registered in more than one state. We’re making sure there are going to be work requirements…to fear-monger that we’re trying to kick people off is simply untrue.”
Every Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee opposed the bill, Breitbart reports, and vociferously condemned it for blocking illegals from receiving Medicaid. And the Democrat lawmakers argue that the bill is purposefully snatching healthcare from Americans in order to fund the wealthy.
Just like we’ve said all along, @HouseCommerce‘s reconciliation bill addresses illegal immigrants, ineligible recipients, and able bodied adults choosing not to work. pic.twitter.com/luCeVKNvTv
— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) May 13, 2025
In a statement, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ) argued that “this is not a moderate bill, and it is not focused on cutting ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’”
(Photo by Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Instead,” Pallone argued, “Republicans are intentionally taking health care away from millions of Americans so they can give giant tax breaks to the ultra-rich who don’t need them.”
The White House has a different take.
“President Trump and Republicans are protecting Medicaid,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Wire, “and that starts with kicking 1.4 million illegal immigrants off the program to prioritize the Americans who need it.”
Conservative healthcare experts agree. They say the bill is not full of Medicaid cuts, but changes to ensure the program is being received fairly.
“The proposals are not benefit or service cuts, but commonsense administrative changes aimed at weeding out fraud, waste and abuse and bringing about much-needed transparency, accountability, and fairness to the program,” Nina Schaefer, the director of the Center for Health and Welfare Policy at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire.
Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, argued that “Republicans have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to restore fiscal sanity to Medicaid.”
Pipes, who praised the package for incentivizing states not to grant Medicaid to illegal immigrants, actually believes the package doesn’t go far enough, calling for Republicans to “reduce the federal match for Medicaid’s expansion population to the level for the legacy population.”
“States currently receive seven times more federal funding for covering the able-bodied under Obamacare’s expansion of the program than for covering Medicaid’s legacy population of pregnant women, the disabled, and children,” she added. “That discrepancy makes no sense.”
The White House is aggressively defending the reconciliation bill, dubbed “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” by President Donald Trump, as a “generational opportunity to deliver the long-term changes Americans voted for.” They argue that it is the largest tax cut in American history, including no tax on tips or tax on overtime, secures the border permanently by funding the border wall and boosting law enforcement on the front lines, modernizes air traffic control, and blocks tax-payer funded gender procedures for minors.
And the Trump administration clearly considers its efforts to boot illegals off Medicaid as a winning message, while Democrats continue to hype their concerns despite polling showing that 71% of Americans strongly favor removing illegals from the program and requiring all who want Medicaid to work if they are able.
