With CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Louisiana House Speaker Mike Johnson met for an interview, wherein he claimed a lot of illegal aliens were getting Medicaid. This is also coming from the same person who claims women actually have abortions after they have already given birth. However, Kaitlan Collins does fact-check him, pushing against the narrative that illegal immigrants were ever eligible to begin with, or, as Mike Johnson put it, the supposed “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Kaitlan explains in CNN’s video on TikTok people who are in the country illegally were never eligible for Obamacare subsidies, Medicare, or Medicaid, which is true. Mike explains they passed the One Big Beautiful Bill as a way to eliminate waste. He said they discovered there were a lot of people on the program who weren’t supposed to be using it. “What you’re saying is they want to give free health care to people who are in the United States illegally,” Kaitlan asks Johnson. Mike verifies while nodding, “That is exactly what the effect will be.” Kaitlan fact-checks him and says the people he’s talking about aren’t actually “illegal aliens.”
Just one quick search can tell you that undocumented immigrants are actually ineligible for federal Medicaid programs. Now, President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are saying Democrats are “demanding” that undocumented immigrants receive these benefits. Trump himself was quoted as saying, “The Democrats want Illegal Aliens, many of them VIOLENT CRIMINALS, to receive FREE Healthcare.”
“As a person who’s worked in healthcare finance for 20 years – he is lying entirely,” one person argued. Another person schooled commenters, “Just like every other country if you’re a visitor or on a tourist visa, if you need EMERGENCY medical care you will be able to get that care. Doesn’t mean they qualify for Medicaid insurance. Some Americans don’t qualify for Medicaid because they make too much. Undocumented people do not get health coverage.”
More importantly, where is the evidence that a large volume of illegal immigrants is taking advantage of Medicaid? The people who will be affected by their changes are actually refugee seekers and asylum seekers. Essentially, people are in some of the worst situations.
