XPost: alt.politics.immigration, alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.guns XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.medicine

https://amac.us/newsline/economy/democrats-forced-to-reckon-with-reality- on-healthcare-for-illegal-aliens/

For years, Democrats have touted “Medicare for all” as a sacred mantra, no matter the price tag or who foots the bill. Now, deep-blue states are
finding out the true cost of such virtue signaling.

In the most recent development, news broke last week that Illinois
Governor JB Pritzker’s latest budget proposal cuts funding for a program
that provides taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal aliens aged 42 to 65. Democrats in Springfield are unsurprisingly outraged over the proposed
cut, but as Pritzker’s office made clear, the math simply doesn’t add up.
The program is expected to cost about $538 million this year alone – even
as the state faces a soaring budget deficit.

But as disastrous as taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens has
been in Illinois, things are even worse in California and Minnesota, which
both rolled out programs offering “free” healthcare to every illegal
alien, regardless of age. California Governor Gavin Newsom, once the
policy’s biggest champion, is now freezing new enrollments as costs
spiral. Meanwhile, Minnesota Democrats are publicly battling over their
runaway Medicaid expansion.

As AMAC reported last month, California’s journey into this mess began in
2022, when Newsom and the Democrat supermajority extended Medi-Cal, the
state’s Medicaid program, to all adults aged 26 to 49, regardless of immigration status. The move, which took effect in 2024, was billed as a national first and, in Newsom’s words, a “transformative step towards strengthening the healthcare system for all Californians.”

Officials initially estimated about 764,000 illegal immigrants would
enroll. Instead, enrollment has been roughly 1.6 million and continues climbing, according to CalMatters. The state is now scrambling for
billions to cover these colossal miscalculations. Newsom has resorted to
taking out $6.2 billion in loans from the general fund to keep Medicaid
afloat.

As AMAC Newsline recently noted, this isn’t really a loan – it’s a
bailout. With California’s debt already at $273 billion, Medi-Cal is
unlikely to repay the general fund. Newsom’s choice to prioritize illegal aliens over taxpaying citizens has drawn harsh criticism from California Republicans, who called for a freeze on new enrollments. But thanks to a Biden-era policy, California Democrats have used a deceptive maneuver to
pass the bill off to federal taxpayers.

In essence, California can tax Medicaid insurers, then pay that money back
to those same insurers through Medicaid payments for patient care. This artificially inflates the state’s Medicaid spending on paper, which means California qualifies for a larger federal match, effectively turning state-collected tax dollars into extra federal funding.

In practice, this means federal taxpayers everywhere – blue state, red
state, doesn’t matter – are paying billions each year to prop up
California’s Medicaid expansion for illegal aliens. Still, California’s spending problem couldn’t be hidden forever. Newsom is now desperately
trying to slow the bleeding, according to National Review.

Starting next year, the state will stop enrolling new low-income illegal
aliens in Medi-Cal. Coverage won’t be stripped from those already
enrolled, but new applicants will be denied. By 2027, adults with “unsatisfactory immigration status” must pay a $100 monthly premium.

The about-face should hardly be a surprise after the program blew through
cost projections by $2.7 billion, with Newsom acknowledging the need for “difficult but necessary steps” to preserve Medi-Cal’s fiscal viability.
His office estimates that freezing new enrollments and adding premiums
could save $5.4 billion by 2028-29.

It’s important to note these “savings” don’t mean California will recover
or bank $5.4 billion. Instead, the figure reflects money the state will
avoid spending compared to what projections had been had the program
continued unchecked. In other words, these are costs California won’t
incur, not funds returning to the budget.

Minnesota followed California’s lead into financial ruin, launching a
similar plan expecting 5,700 illegal alien enrollees. Instead, over 20,000 signed up within months, pushing costs nearly 30 percent over budget and climbing, according to Conservative Brief. The state’s response was to end coverage for undocumented adults while allowing children to remain on the rolls.

Even though Minnesota Governor Tim Walz himself admitted spending is unsustainable, the cuts predictably sparked left-wing outrage elsewhere.

State Senator Alice Mann accused Republicans of trying to strip people of
their healthcare “under the guise of fiscal responsibility.” But as
Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth noted, “Those that are here
illegally, they can still join the private market, so it’s not that
healthcare is being denied in any way.”

What’s happening in California and Minnesota isn’t a fluke. It’s the
natural endgame of the Democrat Party’s open-borders, free-healthcare-for-
all agenda. The left refuses to accept one simple truth – there’s always a price, no matter how noble the cause. Vague overtures to “compassion” and “kindness” don’t balance budgets, and every “free” service they promise
shifts the cost onto someone else.

In the end, it’s not just the taxpayers of Illinois, California, and
Minnesota left dealing with the hangover; every American taxpayer must
pick up the tab. Democrats are running out of places to hide from the
fallout of their own policies. The question is whether voters will let
them try the same playbook on a national scale or if these state-level
fiascoes will serve as a warning enough.


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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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