A host of deep blue states are quietly pulling back from their generous programs of “free” healthcare to migrants as federal dollars dry up and their budgets continue to spiral into the red.
With the Trump administration beginning to close the spigot of billions in federal aid that many states lavishly spent caring for illegal migrants, sates including California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon Washington, and the District of Columbia are finding that they cannot afford to replace the chocked off federal dollars with their own state budget dollars. This reality setting in has caused state officials to begin scaling back their freebies to illegals, which all come at the expense of American citizens.
According to the Washington Examiner, 14 states have had been devoting untold millions to migrants, for their children, and for pregnant, non-citizen women.
But after President Donald Trump signed his “Big Beautiful” spending bill, cutting billions in federal aid with cuts to Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, and Obamacare insurance subsidies, many states have been forced to make decisions about their migrant programs.
The cutbacks also reflect the Democrats’ difficulty in funding their hugely expensive urban political machines. Those “Sanctuary City Ponzi scheme” political machines need poor migrants to help conduit federal funds back to local city and state politicians, partly because many productive Americans move away to low-migration cities and states that have lower taxes, less diversity, better schools, higher wages, and cheaper housing.
Thus far, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and Washington the District of Columbia have already begun cutting free migrant healthcare budgets. And several others are in the process of evaluating similar measures.
Some migrant’s rights activists worry that the cuts will hurt migrants in the coming years.
“The federal government shifted much more of the financial burden of providing those services to states. And so, states are taking a holistic view at their healthcare budgets and trying to figure out where they can cut,” said Medha Makhlouf, a law professor and expert on migrants’ access to healthcare in the U.S.
But Cooper Smith, director of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute, says it is more than reasonable that Americans get to decide with to do with our tax dollars.
“Taxpayers pay into a system,” Smith told the paper. “I think it’s reasonable to expect that those who have paid into the system should be the primary beneficiaries of public benefit.”
Oddly enough, California — the state with the most generous benefits for illegals — was one of the first to cut some access to migrants. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state budget that prevents immigrants who are here illegally from enrolling in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. The budget also ruled that current enrollees will now have to pay a $30 monthly premium. The state is also cancelling dental care for non-citizens.
On the tail of California’s cuts, states including Illinois and Colorado – both extremely blue states with heavy subsidies for lawbreaking illegal migrants — also began scaling back their spending on healthcare for migrants.
For its part, Illinois began cutting free healthcare programs in March of last year. Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker announced the cuts to a program that had only just launched three years previously due to wild overspending and budget shortfalls.
New York has also started making some small cuts in their migrant programs. Empire State Democrats are narrowing the income eligibility rules for its “Essential Plan,” which provides a no-premium plan for those here legally that do not qualify for Medicaid.
It is likely all these cuts would be quickly reversed if Democrats take control of Congress and the White House again, but the fact that cuts are being made now shows the success that the Trump administration enjoys today and should get credit for.
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