by Emily Kopp
Oregon will spend more on free health care for immigrants regardless of legal status than on state police by at least $500 million in the current budget period, according to state officials and budget documents.
Oregon officials expect it spend $1.5 billion total state and federal taxpayer dollars for a program providing health benefits to illegal aliens from 2025 to 2027. They expect to spend $717 million ON Oregon State Police during the same period, as documents indicate.
The state’s health agency, the Oregon Health Authority, said in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the state expects to allocate $1.2 billion to the program, originally called “Embrace All People” and now called the Healthier Oregon Program (HOP). Oregon sets its biennial “biennial” budgets.
The federal government will provide 25% of funding to provide health services to illegal aliens in Oregon, OHA provided to DCNF.
The data symbolizes some of the Democratic stronghold’s policy priorities – making it easier for undocumented immigrants to access health care and curbing criminal repression. It was this policy that caused the government shutdown in Washington and protests in Portland.
Medicaid – a joint state program that has traditionally provided health services to children, pregnant mothers and disabled adults – formally bars illegal immigrants from receiving benefits.
However, some blue states have innovated original accounting methods extract federal dollars without federal restrictions, according to the Paragon Health Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group. Blue states will tax insurers and Medicaid providers, get a package of federal matching dollars for these funds, and then return the taxed money to these institutions, – emphasizes the team of advisors.
Healthcare spending for illegal aliens in Oregon has increased by at least 1,100% since the program was introduced about four years ago.
Lawmakers first introduced the program in 2021 with a $100 million cap. State Medicaid programs have benefited from increased federal matching dollars Covid-19 pandemic then. Proposal grew out of a racial justice council convened by then-Gov. Kate Brown in 2020 and enjoyed support from: coalition managed care organizations, hospital groups, pro-abortion groups, medical associations, labor unions and support groups.
Meanwhile, the number of illegal immigrants in the country increased under President Joe Biden, the public health emergency ended and Oregon expanded eligibility to all age groups, resulting in a huge boost in costs.
According to the report, OHA faced a $260 million budget shortfall in October 2024 Lund Reporthealth news site focusing on Oregon. The report found that about 93,000 people were enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program for immigrants, regardless of their legal status, almost double the state’s projected 55,000 enrollees.
Games in DC, Portland
Among the policy demands that congressional Democrats in Washington have made as a precondition for reopening the government is removing barriers that prevent Medicaid dollars from flowing to illegal aliens.
Democrats counterproposal to a “clean” continuing resolution (CR), favored by Republicans to end the government shutdown, would undo several reforms that President Donald Trump signed into law in July under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB).
These provisions included ending higher federal Medicaid funds for emergency care for illegal aliens compared to customary Medicaid beneficiaries such as children – states received a rate of 90% for illegal aliens compared to 50% for American citizens – and closing accounting loopholes that allow federal funds to be reallocated to state priorities, such as protecting undocumented immigrants.
House Speaker Mike Johnson he estimated that rolling back health reforms would cost about $192 billion.
According to Oregon, an illegal alien does not have to provide proof of long-term residency in the state to receive taxpayer-funded health benefits. country resources.
According to OHA, federal spending for illegal aliens in Oregon only covers emergency and pregnancy care that the federal government is required to cover under U.S. law, echoing the argument of Democratic leaders who say illegal immigrants cannot access federal Medicaid dollars outside the emergency room.
However OHA budget document shows that the state will obtain federal dollars unfettered by federal regulations also through original accounting.
Oregon is filling its state pot with Medicaid funds, funds unfettered by federal laws that prohibit giving them to illegal aliens through what it calls a “tax” but is actually an accounting loophole. Oregon “taxes” hospitals to obtain funding while using federal matching funds to repay hospitals the full “taxed” amount.
Meanwhile, in Portland, overnight protests continue in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Lawyers for the state of Oregon and the city of Portland have already done this he argued in court against the deployment of the National Guard, claiming that violent crime in Portland has dropped significantly.
But on Wednesday, the Portland City Council heard testimony from several tiny business owners who spoke in favor of the initiative revitalize storefronts in Portland among burglaries, fires, graffiti, shoplifting, public drug exploit and apparent mental health crises.
“I’ve had nine windows replaced in total, three locks after attempted break-ins, I’ve been spit on, I’ve been punched twice, including once with a black eye. A man was masturbating in my window. I’ve had a gun pulled on me twice – once last week. I’ve been pulled with a knife,” said Steve Cook, owner of Vinyl Resting Place in Portland. “When they find me dead in my shop, I’ll say, ‘I told you so.'”
– – –
Emily Kopp is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
