During an interview on ‘The Evening Edit,’ Laura Wilkerson, a mother who tragically lost her son due to the actions of an illegal migrant, shared her heart-wrenching story.
According to a recent study conducted by the Foundation for Government Accountability, the actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration have resulted in millions of undocumented immigrants gaining access to Medicaid.
Experts are warning that the influx of migrants will overwhelm American hospitals and result in potentially tens of billions of dollars in additional annual costs for taxpayers.
This comes on top of the already estimated $150 billion increase in taxes each year. The border crisis, which has been exacerbated by the Biden administration, is putting significant strain on both Medicaid and hospitals in the United States.
Loopholes, along with the expansion of Medicaid coverage by several U.S. states and the Biden-Harris White House’s weakening of Medicaid and Social Security verification systems, are contributing to this situation.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently addressed questions regarding the economy in an exclusive interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
Between 2019 and 2023, the number of illegal aliens on state Medicaid in a study of nine states, including Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, increased by a staggering 500%, according to the Foundation.
Due to this, overburdened hospitals frequently find themselves unable to provide proper follow-up care, resulting in a new version of the “catch and release” phenomenon within the American healthcare system.
U.S. states typically verify a patient’s citizenship status by consulting federal sources like Social Security. However, there is a loophole in the system. If the government data does not match, states provide patients with a 90-day grace period to obtain the necessary documentation to confirm their eligibility and secure Medicaid coverage for healthcare.
The Department of Health and Human Services is preventing states from imposing restrictions on the extension of grace periods, as long as undocumented individuals make a sincere effort to prove their citizenship. As a result, many states are now frequently extending these grace periods beyond the initial 90 days.
In 2021, the Biden Administration exacerbated the issue by compelling Social Security to discontinue the issuance of “no match” letters to American businesses.
These letters served as red-flag notifications, alerting employers that their workers were not legal citizens because their information did not match the records in the Social Security system, specifically the IRS W-2 wage reporting forms.
According to a recent study, it is projected that employer health care costs will rise by 9% in 2025.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the United States currently has approximately 21.2 million noncitizen immigrants as of 2022, accounting for roughly 7% of the total population. Out of these immigrants, around six out of ten are lawfully present, while the remaining four are undocumented.
Illegal immigrants and non-qualified migrants can qualify for emergency Medicaid if they meet the eligibility criteria set by their state’s Medicaid program. However, they are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage, such as full Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare, or to purchase coverage through the Obamacare system.
In certain states, such as California and New York, the scope of Medicaid coverage is being extended to encompass undocumented immigrants.
In New York, for instance, undocumented individuals aged 65 and above, who meet specific income and eligibility criteria, are now eligible to enroll in Medicaid. Moreover, California and Oregon already provide comprehensive Medicaid benefits to undocumented migrants.
As reported by the Foundation, California’s state Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants amounts to approximately $4 billion per year, which is funded by taxpayers in the state.
According to Hayden Dublois, analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability, taxpayers across the nation may soon bear the burden of funding healthcare for individuals who are not entitled to our safety net, including those who do not have the right to be in the country.
This could result in the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars. According to Dublois, the inclusion of illegal aliens in Medicaid will have negative consequences for the entire healthcare system.
He argues that since Medicaid payments are significantly lower than those from private insurance, hospitals will face financial struggles and accumulate more debt.
In fact, some hospitals have already been forced to close, particularly in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Therefore, extending coverage to illegal aliens is likely to exacerbate this issue and lead to further hospital closures.