October 1, 2025
By Marc Stier
The federal government is now shut down because the Republicans, who mostly run Washington, need some Democratic support to pass a temporary budget (known as a continuing resolution) in the Senate. For weeks, Democrats sought a meeting with Republicans to reach a bipartisan agreement. That meeting did not take place until a day before the end of the budget year.
Democrats are demanding that the continuing resolution extend the expanded tax credits for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges and reverse the Medicaid cuts enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
If the expanded ACA tax credits are not renewed, health insurance costs will sharply increase for everyone by an average of 18%—and for many families and small businesses the increase could be far higher, ranging from 44% to 153%. As a result, next year 4.8 million fewer families and small business owners will have health insurance because they can no longer afford it.
If the Medicaid cuts are not reversed, 10 million Americans will lose their health insurance by 2034.
Republicans have simply refused to negotiate with Democrats on these issues. Instead, they are telling perhaps the most extreme lie that anyone has put forward in any political debate in decades.
And, you can tell Pennsylvania’s senators to reject any continuing resolution that does not protect health care for millions of Americans by using our online tool.
They are claiming that Democrats are opposing the Republican budget in order to secure health insurance for undocumented immigrants.
This claim is an out-and-out lie. It has not a shred of truth to it. It is utterly dishonest.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to purchase health insurance on the ACA exchanges, let alone to receive tax credits for doing so.
Nor are they eligible for Medicaid, paid for by the federal government.
It is true that in the past Medicaid reimbursed hospitals for emergency care received by undocumented immigrants. But under federal law, everyone who shows up at a hospital needing emergency care must get it. Hospitals simply cannot turn away undocumented immigrants in distress. And no one with any human feeling would want them to do so.
Medicaid covered those costs in the past, not to give undocumented immigrants health care, but to help hospitals and other patients. When hospitals take care of people without insurance, some of the costs are passed on to other people—and that raises our health care costs. And some of it subsidized by hospitals, which threatens their ability to stay in business.
The Democrats’ current proposals are not designed to solve this problem but to ensure that American citizens can secure health care.
Any news outlet that reports the Republicans’ false claim that the Democratic goal is to provide health care to undocumented immigrants and doesn’t immediately say it is false is failing at its work and is a threat to the republic that protects its liberty to publish.
If you see a Republican candidate or office holder who supports this claim, call them out. Tell them you know they’re lying.
If you see a news report that reports the Republican claim but fails to say it is untrue, call or write the editor.
If you have friends that make this claim, let them know you won’t have anything to do with anyone who repeats this lie.
There is no way to contextualize this or read into the claim in a way that makes it almost right. There is no way to “what-about?” this claim and say that Democrats have also told such a blatant lie in a critical public debate.
Do not let them get away with this.
P.S. PPC would welcome extending health insurance to everyone who cannot get it. So, in addition to opposing the Republican lie, we oppose the anti-immigrant sentiments that underlie it.