Shutdown fight over Medicaid and immigrant coverage
Amid the federal funding shutdown in early October 2025, Republicans have accused Democrats of pushing taxpayer-funded health coverage for immigrants in the U.S. illegally. CBS News explains the policy reality: the recently passed 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' narrowed Medicaid eligibility for many noncitizens, a change that KFF/CBO data say could remove coverage for about 1.4 million people, and Democrats' funding proposal would restore the pre-2025 eligibility rules — which only applied to immigrants present with legal status or government permission, not to people lacking any status.
Politics
Health
🔍 Key Facts
- One Big Beautiful Bill Act (passed and signed in summer 2025) restricted Medicaid eligibility for noncitizens, limiting it to lawful permanent residents, Cubans and Haitians who entered legally, and selected Pacific-island nationals.
- KFF analysis of CBO data estimates roughly 1.4 million immigrants could lose Medicaid coverage under the new law.
- Democrats' funding proposal would reverse those eligibility cuts and restore pre-2025 rules for groups who are lawfully present or have government permission (refugees, asylees, parolees, certain deportation deferrals); people in the U.S. without any legal status remain generally ineligible for federal Medicaid, aside from limited emergency-care reimbursement (<1% of program spending).
📍 Contextual Background
- Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and for premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.
- The United States federal government entered a partial shutdown on 2025-10-01 after the midnight funding deadline passed with Democrats and Republicans failing to agree on a funding bill.