EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is accusing Democrats of lying in their denials that they're pushing to give healthcare back to illegal immigrants.
"The idea that you would want illegal aliens to be paid benefits by U.S. taxpayers is unconscionable," Johnson said Wednesday.
The top House Republican sat down with Fox News Digital for an interview on the first full day of the ongoing government shutdown, hours after Senate Democrats again rejected the GOP's proposal to keep federal agencies funded at fiscal year (FY) 2025 levels through Nov. 21.
Republicans' accusations that Democrats are trying to reverse GOP changes to the Medicaid system in favor of illegal immigrants has been a particularly significant flashpoint in the fight, with those on the left attacking that claim as a lie.
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Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are trading blame over the current government shutdown. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo; J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
But Johnson pointed out that Democrats' own counter-proposal for a funding bill included a provision that would have entirely reversed Republicans' recent Medicaid changes in the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) signed into law on July 4.
"What we're trying to do is strengthen Medicaid, and one of the very important things we had to do is make sure that the more than 1 million illegal aliens who were collecting that were not allowed on the program," Johnson said.
"So when they say they want to repeal the healthcare provisions of the OBBB, it's that and it's the rural hospital fund. We put $50 billion into a fund to prop up our rural hospitals, and that would do real damage [if ended]."
People in the U.S. without legal status are already barred on a federal level from accessing benefits like Medicaid.
And Democrats, who are also pushing for any funding deal to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year, have insisted that they're fighting to preserve healthcare for Americans.
Republicans' bill installed a 20-hour-per-week work requirement for certain able-bodied people on Medicaid, even for U.S. citizens, which Democrats objected to.
President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., meanwhile, told CNN on Wednesday of the illegal immigrants claim, "Taxpayer dollars cannot be spent on Medicaid or Medicare or the Affordable Care Act related to undocumented immigrants, and not a single Democrat has raised the issue of trying to reverse that federal law. What we are trying to do is save the healthcare of the American people, lower their costs and cancel these cuts."
Yet 14 states and the District of Columbia, all of which use a mix of federal and state dollars to fund Medicaid, allow some level of state-funded healthcare coverage for residents without legal immigration status. Those programs are active in places that expanded their Medicaid populations under Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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Hospitals are also given federal dollars to cover Emergency Medicaid funding, which is available to people who meet all Medicaid eligibility requirements except for immigration status in cases of dire immediate need.
The OBBB reduces the amount of federal dollars those hospitals get, however.
The GOP policy bill also strengthens guardrails around who can get Medicaid coverage, barring certain groups of asylum-seekers and refugees who otherwise would have qualified for some level of coverage.
The government entered a partial shutdown after Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding. (Getty Images)
Republicans argue that millions of people who entered the U.S. illegally were improperly granted at least temporary legal status under former President Joe Biden, and so should not qualify for the same benefits as other legal immigrants — a point Johnson suggested during his interview as well.
"President Biden added all those people onto the rolls, and he kept the border open for four years," Johnson said. "They put them on taxpayer benefits."
While Biden did enact significant restrictions on asylum and illegal entry across the border toward the end of his term, his loosening of Trump administration-era restrictions in 2021 is accused of helping precipitate a record number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S.
"Illegal aliens can't get Medicaid, but that has only been true since July 4, and the reason that is a true statement is because we passed it into law and all the Democrats voted against it," Johnson said. "So they want to reverse what we did. I mean, that's just plain and simple."