GOP accuses Dems of risking shutdown to restore ‘illegal immigrant healthcare’

As Congress barrels toward Tuesday’s midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans are blasting Democrats for prioritizing "free healthcare for illegal aliens" over paying U.S. troops, who would miss paychecks if the government closes.

Both Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., have accused Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of trying to reinstate taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants through congressional Democrats’ continuing resolution (CR), a charge Democrats dispute. 

Congressional Democrats' main demand has been an extension of expiring Obamacare tax credits, but among their wishlist is a push to repeal the healthcare title of President Donald Trump’s signature piece of legislation. 

Republicans aimed to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from Medicaid, reforms which included limiting eligibility and penalizing states who extended healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. 

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"They want to have illegal aliens come into our country and get massive healthcare at the cost to everybody else, and we don't have it. And that’s, I would say, the number one reason that they want to strike is to get illegal immigrants’ healthcare," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, as he said Republicans are not responsible for the looming government shutdown.

"Democrats are about to shut down the government because they demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens," Vice President JD Vance posted on X last week. Johnson added on Sunday that Schumer wants to "reinstate free healthcare for illegal aliens paid by American taxpayers."

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Schumer and congressional Democrats, however, have labeled the issue the "Republican healthcare crisis," and placed the onus of a government shutdown on Trump and the GOP. The top Senate Democrat rejected Republican's claims that they were trying to allow illegal immigrants onto federal health care rolls ahead of the vote to fund the government. 

"They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits," Schumer said. "That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell."

Republicans have seized on Democrats’ efforts to roll back Medicaid reform included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which narrowly passed through Congress earlier this year. 

Last week on Truth Social, Trump stated, "Democrats want Illegal Aliens, many of them VIOLENT CRIMINALS, to receive FREE Healthcare."

While many of the provisions they sought to include in Trump’s colossal bill were nixed by Senate rules, one provision included in the legislation limited Medicaid eligibility to U.S. citizens and other certain lawful permanent residents, according to the American Medical Association. 

That provision simultaneously barred "previously eligible legal immigrants such as refugees, individuals granted asylum, and certain abused spouses and children," and is set to take effect on Wednesday, Oct. 1. 

Taxpayer-funded Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants has long been prohibited, except for treatment of emergency medical conditions. 

The OBBBA made certain changes to the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), which dictates how much the federal government matches states' funding for Medicaid.

Obamacare, meanwhile, allowed for states to expand their Medicaid populations with the federal government matching 90% of the costs of that expanded population. States that took that expansion and also provide healthcare funding for illegal immigrants are due to receive less federal funding under OBBBA, with that cost-sharing margin going from 90% to 80%. 

And while illegal immigrants do not qualify for Medicaid and Medicare, Emergency Medicaid reimbursements allow hospitals to recoup the cost of emergency care for people who would be eligible for Medicaid if they had legal status. The OBBBA limits those federal dollars, however, to just allow for the state's regular FMAP share.

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While ACA subsidies aren't set to expire until the end of this year, Democrats warned that insurers were set to send out new guidance and rates on Wednesday. They charged that on average, premium costs for people enrolled on Obamacare that use the credits would go up by an average of 114%.