Earlier this week Brett wrote about an ABC News report that illegal aliens represent less than one percent in all Medicaid spending by the U.S. government.
We've arrived at stage two of the narrative evolution. We started with "zero dollars are spent on illegals for health care" to "sure some money is spent but it's only .4 percent of all Medicaid spending."
The preferred Democrat spin is to make it sound like a trivial amount of money, like this:
Don’t let the GOP’s lies fool you: undocumented immigrants can’t get Medicaid, Medicare, or Obamacare. The only way in which the federal govt might pay for their healthcare is through ERs, which are required to give emergency care to all people. Medicaid reimburses hospitals for… pic.twitter.com/Sy2xpj5bLK
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) October 9, 2025
That's the same approach ABC News took in their headline and story that the Democrats will approve of:
Emergency Medicaid for undocumented immigrants made up only 0.4% of total Medicaid spending in 2022, a new study finds. https://t.co/jVIDTd9fk5
— ABC News (@ABC) October 11, 2025
Nowhere in the story does it say the total amount the federal government spends on Medicaid nor do the "journalists" do the math for us on what .4 percent of the nearly trillion dollars spent every year on the program amounts to.
If this was honest journalism the headline would be something like "taxpayers cover billions of dollars per year for emergency room care for illegal aliens," but they obviously were trying to avoid that. And since E.R. care is covered illegals will naturally use it as their primary care provider.
Nice try, propagandists. That’s “only” $3.8 billion stolen from American taxpayers — and that doesn’t even include the roughly $5.9 billion in uncompensated expenses hospitals “write off” and pass on to the rest of us through higher costs.
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) October 11, 2025
The correct number is 0. https://t.co/fsBmyKGYtp
Democrats told me it was 0 https://t.co/ntoXCOgRVL
— Devontae Jake (@devontaejakee) October 11, 2025
In other words, the Democrats lied. Again.
This question points out that the number might even be higher now (or up to now I should say):
And why are they using 2022 numbers? Are those the latest available or was 2023 higher? I cannot help it; I just don't trust these legacy media outlets.
— Kris Kinder (@kris_kinder) October 11, 2025
No one should trust them.
Oh, and the ABC story closes this way:
The authors added that the study has limitations including that 11 states did not report emergency Medicaid spending and that the analysis did not account for other public spending on undocumented immigrants.
So the real amount of taxpayer dollars spent on health care for illegals is much higher. Not that ABC News is going to put it that way.
The next round of media spin about this story is coming up soon, which will be "the federal government actually spends a fortune on health care for illegals and here's why that's a GOOD thing." Wait for it.
