Free Health Care for Illegal Aliens Is a Budget Buster for Blue States

Several deep blue states have moved to extend healthcare to illegal aliens, but costs have exploded and enrollments have raced far past the numbers lawmakers expected, causing budget disasters across the board.

In 2019, California became the first deep blue state to allow illegal aliens to enroll in the state’s healthcare program. Since then, the costs have wildly spun out of control. This year it was reported that the costs of the program was more than three billion dollars above the estimates. Now some are asking why.

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As in California, Illinois has also found itself in a political pickle over healthcare for illegals. In February, opponents of the free healthcare policy for illegals revealed that the cost to taxpayers reached $1.6 billion since 2020, a number far higher than Democrats estimated when they proposed the program.

At the time, State Senate Republican leader John Curran blasted the Democrats, saying that the program “spent well in excess of 200% more than what was estimated in budgets and in appropriations,” Fox News reported in February.

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Colorado has also been socked with cost overruns and higher numbers of those enrolling than expected.

In March, reports revealed that costs to taxpayers for the Centennial State’s healthcare for illegals program had spiked more than 600 percent after the latest wave of enrollees.

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{snip} Minnesota State Senator Steve Drazkowski published an op-ed asking why illegal immigrants are getting taxpayer-funded healthcare in the first place.

Sen. Drazkowski noted that enrollment in MinnesotaCare is nearly triple what the Democrats claimed it would be. He outlined that he program’s costs will quickly zoom past $1.3 billion in the next two years.

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