Carl Higbie was right to call out a dangerous priority shift in Washington: too many Democrats seem willing to bend policy and taxpayer dollars to reward illegal immigration while hardworking Americans watch their healthcare access and premiums get squeezed. This isn’t just about compassion — it’s about common-sense stewardship of our limited resources and the basic duty of elected officials to put citizens first.
Federal law already creates an awkward patchwork: undocumented immigrants are excluded from most federal programs but hospitals are legally required to stabilize anyone in an emergency, so taxpayers often pick up the bill indirectly through emergency-care reimbursements and strained local systems.
That burden is real even if the left tries to minimize it with percentages and talking points; emergency Medicaid spending was only a sliver of total Medicaid dollars nationally, but those national averages hide pockets of acute strain in border and sanctuary states where costs and wait times spike. Recent analyses show emergency Medicaid accounted for about 0.4% of total Medicaid spending in 2022 while costing states an average of roughly $9.63 per resident — numbers that look small on a national spreadsheet but translate into real fiscal pressure where enrollment climbs.
California’s experiment should be a warning to the nation: expanding coverage for undocumented adults shifted enormous costs into the state budget and forced stopgap measures to plug multimillion-dollar shortfalls, demonstrating that promises of “no cost to taxpayers” are often fantasy when the rubber meets the road. Governors and state legislators who backed these expansions now face hard choices: cuts to services, higher taxes, or creative accounting to chase federal matches.
Democrats who cheer these policies talk about compassion while ignoring consequences — higher premiums, longer wait times, and fewer resources for veterans, seniors, and Americans on fixed incomes. If our priorities are reversed, we will slowly hollow out the very safety net meant for citizens and lawful residents.
The solution is simple and patriotic: secure the border, enforce immigration law, and restore healthcare resources to American taxpayers first. Washington should stop papering over problems with borrowed money and political dodges, and instead deliver commonsense reforms that protect both our sovereignty and the healthcare of hardworking Americans.
