I hesitate to post anything about Medicaid or in-the-weeds federal budget matters because I am not an expert, and we do have real experts here. But with the government shutdown, regular folks (“everyday Americans” in pol-speak) may encounter MAGA marks who are defending the indefensible proposal to slash Medicaid by nearly a trillion dollars so Elon Musk can buy a fourth yacht.
If you do run into one of the marks in the wild, they’ll almost certainly parrot the line Mike Johnson is peddling all over TV, which is that Democrats want to fund Medicaid for “illegal aliens.” It’s a lie because by law, undocumented people aren’t eligible for Medicaid benefits.
But Republicans are attempting to bamboozle voters into thinking hordes of undocumented people receive care on our dime via emergency funding for hospitals under Medicaid. Here’s JD Vance working that angle:
“A lot of emergency health care at hospitals that are provided to illegal aliens, that was funded by the federal government,” Vance said. “We turned off that funding because, of course, we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed, and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens.”
I’m not familiar with the underlying policy, but common sense tells me the emergency care funding provision is there to support hospitals, which are obligated to treat patients in an emergency, rather than a back-door mechanism to cover undocumented people. The funding amounts to between 1% and 2% of the Medicaid budget (depending on the time period), according to the linked article.
Also, we don’t know what portion of that tiny percentage of the total Medicaid budget went to pay for care received by undocumented people as opposed to folks who are here legally but not eligible for Medicaid. So, that’s the thin reed upon which Trump, Vance, Johnson, et al., are hanging their “Dems want to enroll illegal aliens in Medicaid” lie.
To put the sum in question in perspective, the GOP cut to Medicaid emergency care funds is projected to “save” $28 billion over a decade. That’s a bit more than half of the amount of taxpayer money ONE PERSON — Elon Musk — has hoovered up in federal loans, contracts, subsidies and tax credits.
But here’s the thing: hospitals aren’t going to let people bleed out in the ER or deliver their babies on the sidewalk if they can’t pay. So under the Republican Medicaid cuts, hospitals will get screwed along with working folks who receive ACA subsidies, disabled people, etc. It’s all a big fucking con, as is pretty much every Republican policy under the current set of ghouls.
I think elected Dems like Rep. Jeffries are right to just call Republican talking points on this a lie because it is. No reason to get down into the weeds on TV because no one is listening. But I thought I’d share what I learned here because it could come in handy in real life conversations. If I’ve fucked up on the facts anywhere, please feel free to set the record straight in comments.
Open thread!
Debunking the GOP’s Bullshit “Illegal Aliens on Medicaid” Talking PointPost + Comments (119)
