Karoline Leavitt Turns Tables On Reporter Trying To Claim No Illegal Immigrant Has Received Medicaid Coverage

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back at a reporter on Friday who suggested that illegal immigrants are not receiving taxpayer funded healthcare coverage.

Democrats claimed they voted for the shutdown on Wednesday over their demands to extend tax credits in the Affordable Care Act, though Republicans have argued that Democrats truly want to hand out Medicaid services to illegal immigrants. Leavitt said that the Democrats’ counter-proposal to the Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) would require Medicaid to pay more for illegal immigrants’ medical care.

“Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens in the United States of America? … inserted a provision to undo a provision in the working families tax cut, the one big, beautiful bill, that ended taxpayer funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens,” Leavitt said. “The Democrats proposal would require Medicaid to pay more to provide care for illegal aliens than Medicaid does for American patients who are disabled, elderly or children. And this bill would’ve also allowed California to continue a gimmick that funds Medicaid for illegals’ programs. Those are the things that we ended, the Trump administration ended with the passage of the one big, beautiful bill.”

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Leavitt added that Medicaid spending for illegal immigrants nearly tripled under the Biden administration, when illegal border crossings also reached record-highs by surpassing 2 and 3 million encounters in a single fiscal year. Medicaid costs for illegal immigrants’ emergency care rose 142% in the fiscal year 2024.

“And it is an undisputed fact, a fact, that under the Biden administration, illegal aliens were absolutely receiving taxpayer funded healthcare benefits. In fact, in fiscal year 2024, Medicaid costs for emergency services for illegal immigrants skyrocketed by 142% from the previous year to $9.1 billion,” Leavitt continued. “That’s $9.1 billion taxpayer dollars that were going to emergency services for illegals. Between President Trump last full fiscal year in his first administration and Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year, Medicaid spending on emergency services for illegal immigrants nearly tripled. There was an increase of 196% between 2020 and 2024.”