Ignoring facts, NC Republicans say Dems want free health care for ‘illegal aliens’ | Opinion
As the government shutdown drags on, Republicans are accusing Democrats of, in the words of House Speaker Mike Johnson, “holding the American government HOSTAGE so they can give FREE health care to ILLEGAL ALIENS.”
North Carolina Republicans have posted or reposted similar claims more than a dozen times on social media.
“You deserve to not have your hard earned tax dollars go towards paying for the health care of illegals,” U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wrote on X. “That’s what Democrats want.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Moore accused Democrats of “literally putting illegal immigrants first.” U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson said they “care more about illegal aliens getting healthcare than they do working families.”
But that’s not true.
It’s true that Democrats are holding out because they want to see changes to health care policy in the next congressional spending plan. But those changes do not include subsidizing health care for undocumented immigrants. In fact, federal law already prohibits undocumented immigrants from gaining any federally subsidized health care coverage, including under Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are not seeking to change that. Rather, they are pushing to extend health care tax credits and to reverse the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed in July.
Republicans point to the bill that Democrats have proposed to end the government shutdown as proof that they want to give health care to undocumented people. That bill seeks to repeal a part of the “big, beautiful bill” that prohibits Medicaid and ACA eligibility for certain groups of immigrants who are not citizens, but who are considered to be “lawfully present” in the U.S., such as refugees and people seeking asylum.
As Republicans have gleefully pointed out, one of the sections that Democrats want to repeal is titled “Alien Medicaid eligibility.” But alien simply means any person who is not a U.S. citizen — not necessarily immigrants who are “undocumented” or “illegal.” In this case, it refers to a little over a million people considered “lawfully present,” whom Republicans believe should be ineligible for health care. That’s not the same thing as wanting to give “free” health care to “illegal aliens.”
Another thing that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed — and that the Democrats’ plan would restore — is reimbursements for emergency Medicaid funding for hospitals that treat undocumented immigrants. According to KFF, Medicaid programs are required to pay hospitals for emergency care provided to undocumented immigrants who would be otherwise eligible for Medicaid, and federal law requires hospitals to stabilize anyone who shows up in an emergency, regardless of their ability to pay. Republicans, though, don’t seem to approve of the idea that hospitals should treat any person that shows up at their door in an emergency.
“If you’re an American citizen and you’ve been to the hospital in the last few years, you’ve probably noticed that wait times are especially large, and very often, somebody who’s there in the ER is an illegal alien, very often someone who doesn’t even speak English,” Vice President JD Vance said at a recent press conference.
The notion that people should be left to suffer because they are not U.S. citizens or they “don’t even speak English” is cruel, and it doesn’t even make practical sense. Are we supposed to start checking people’s Social Security cards before giving them emergency care? But it’s also worth noting that whether Democrats succeed at repealing that provision or not, hospitals will still be required to treat those patients. The GOP’s bill didn’t change that. As a fact-check from Georgetown University pointed out, the provision “does not actually change coverage for immigrants … because hospitals must still provide the health care, and states must still pay them for the health care, it’s just that the federal government will pay a smaller share of the cost.”
Regardless of which side you support, the claim that Democrats are hinging their shutdown fight on “free health care for illegal aliens” is, at best, extremely misleading. Nothing in the Democratic proposal would change health care eligibility for those who are undocumented.
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM.
