Nearly $1.4 billion in federal taxpayer money has gone to fund Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants, according to preliminary numbers from the Trump administration’s most recent audits of several state Medicaid programs.
The new findings from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz that several states have misappropriated federal money to provide illegal immigrants with Medicaid coverage intensifies the GOP claim that Democrats are prolonging the federal government shutdown to provide illegal immigrants with healthcare.
States, which independently administer their Medicaid programs for low-income residents, share funding responsibilities for Medicaid with the federal government. Federal statute does not prevent states from establishing Medicaid eligibility rules for illegal immigrants, but it does prohibit federal dollars from going toward these programs.
Oz posted on X Friday that his agency began auditing state Medicaid programs earlier this year
Preliminary reviews of six states found that more than $1 billion in federal dollars had been siphoned into Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants “just in the past few months,” Oz said.
“Whether willful or not, the states’ conduct highlights a terrifying reality: American taxpayers have been footing the bill for illegal immigrants’ Medicaid coverage, despite many Democrats and the media insisting otherwise,” Oz posted on X.
Oz’s release said that California had spent $1.3 billion in federal taxpayer dollars to provide Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants. Washington, D.C., spent more than $2 million in federal money on its Medicaid for illegal immigrants, and Oregon spent $5.4 million.
Illinois, which spent more than $629 million from its state budget on illegal immigrant healthcare last year, used almost $30 million in federal taxpayer funds to provide the illegal immigrant population Medicaid.
CMS’s findings come as the issue of federal funding for illegal immigrant healthcare has taken center stage in the federal government shutdown that started Oct. 1.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans made tightening eligibility for and federal oversight of Medicaid enrollment a critical part of their fiscal overhaul bill passed this summer, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The measure included cutting eligibility for many classes of immigrants, some of whom entered the country illegally but were given temporary legal status while awaiting judicial review for deportation.
Democrats have made repealing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s health provisions part of their demands for voting to reopen the government, citing the law’s $1 trillion reduction in Medicaid spending over the next 10 years.
Republicans have argued that Democrats shut the government down in order to demand funding for illegal immigrants’ healthcare.
Oz, who has been a vocal supporter of the changes to Medicaid policy in the GOP spending bill, said in his X announcement that Democrats are indeed aiming to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants if they support repealing the tighter oversight restrictions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“This law wisely strengthened our ability to limit federal dollars from being spent on health care for illegal immigrants,” Oz said. “Until Democrats explicitly drop that demand, they’re blatantly holding the government hostage over giving Medicaid to illegal immigrants.”
FACT CHECK: HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Oz said that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been returned to the federal government by the states that have been audited. He added that states voluntarily returning the money “proves that these states realized they were guilty because they wouldn’t give us the money back otherwise.”
“The One Big Beautiful Bill is absolutely essential to keep the financial integrity of the system in place,” Oz said.
