“Morning Joe” dedicated part of its Thursday broadcast to refuting the Trump administration’s claims about undocumented immigrants’ access to health care benefits, stating plainly, “That is simply not true.” On the contrary, MSNBC economic analyst Steve Rattner says Republican states will be hit the hardest if Democrats’ proposed extension of the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits is denied.
“If you look at the increase in uninsured that will occur based on what was passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill, both the reduction in these premium tax credits as well as the Medicaid cutbacks, you can see again that this is going to hit the red states harder. Seven out of ten of the most affected states will be red states,” Rattner explained on Thursday. “Even a majority of self-identified MAGA people support these tax credits.”
Members of the Trump administration have repeatedly claimed over the past week that the government shutdown is the result of their desire to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving health care benefits in America. Rattner pushed back against that narrative, however, saying, “[Illegal immigrants] cannot get health care through Medicaid. They can’t take advantage of these tax credits.”
“None of that is true,” the “Morning Joe” analyst continued. “All they can do is go to an emergency room and, under federal law, anyone who goes to an emergency room must be treated. The government reimburses the hospitals for that.” Even that expense, Rattner noted, is “trivial” in the overall scope of the government’s health care spending.
“If you look at all of the Medicaid spending, only 0.4% is on this emergency room subsidy, which not just includes undocumented immigrants, [it] includes all Americans of every sort who go there,” he added. “You’re talking about a trivial, trivial amount of money that perhaps an undocumented immigrant is able to take advantage of in the health care system.”
While the majority of elected Republicans remain in opposition to the Democrats’ proposed ACA benefits extension, Rattner said it is America’s red states that benefit the most from the health care marketplaces that Obamacare created. That is why, according to Rattner, even a high-profile Republican like Marjorie Taylor Greene has chosen to break from the rest of her party on this issue.
“What’s happened is that, between 2020 and 2025, you had more than a doubling of people enrolling in these marketplaces. There are now 24.2 million people enrolled in these marketplaces,” Rattner detailed. “Where was the biggest increase over the last three years? It was in red states. [There was a] 157% increase in the number of people in the marketplaces, versus 36% in blue states.”
“That’s why Marjorie Taylor Greene is so [passionate] about this,” he concluded. “It is heavily a red state phenomenon.”
