Medicaid

People who are in the United States illegally are generally ineligible to enroll in Medicaid or Medicare and are not eligible to purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Hospitals are legally required to provide emergency medical treatment regardless of a patient's ability to pay or immigration status, and Emergency Medicaid can reimburse hospitals for emergency care provided to immigrants who would have been eligible for Medicaid if not for their immigration status.

Federal emergency payments for emergency care, including Emergency Medicaid reimbursements, constitute less than 1% of total Medicaid spending.

As of 2025, about 24 million people who do not have employer-based insurance or coverage through public programs such as Medicaid use the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces to buy health plans.

Medicaid is a government health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities and is funded jointly by state and federal governments.

Medicaid spending is typically one of the largest components of U.S. state budgets.

U.S. federal rules prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving federal funds for health coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits (as of 2025-10-05).