Minnesota Democrats are doubling down on their radical agenda, pledging to “fight until the very end” to provide free health care to illegal immigrants, on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. As everyday Minnesotans struggle with rising premiums, longer wait times, and an overstretched health care system, progressive lawmakers are prioritizing illegal immigrants over legal residents.
Dozens of Democrats from Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) rallied outside the state House chamber on Friday to oppose a new policy that would end free health care for undocumented adult immigrants by year’s end, while still allowing coverage for children to continue.
Protesters held signs with messages such as "We Stand with Immigrants" and "Empathy: Good Government's Superpower!" They also read anonymous stories from individuals who received life-saving treatment or medication through MinnesotaCare. This state program began offering coverage to low-income individuals not eligible for Medicaid starting January 1.
State lawmakers reached a deal earlier this week to implement cuts to MinnesotaCare coverage after the program exceeded its projected enrollment by nearly 30 percent. Initially, the program was designed for 5,700 undocumented immigrants, but within just a few months, over 20,000 had enrolled in the free healthcare program.
Democratic State Sen. Alice Mann argued that Republicans were willing to cause a government shutdown in Minnesota simply to eliminate free healthcare for 20,000 people. She claimed their true priority was not fiscal responsibility, but instead stripping healthcare from vulnerable individuals, showing a lack of concern for people's well-being.
“I want to just put an exclamation point on what you just heard,” she said. “We had negotiations with a party who does not care about the wellbeing of people. With a party who was willing to throw the entire state of Minnesota in disarray, to shut down the government, and in return for not doing that, they wanted to take away health care from 20,000 people. That was their priority. Their goal was to take away health care from people. Under the guise of fiscal responsibility.”
However, in reality, Republicans do not want to eliminate the program entirely; they simply want to end free healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Mann accused Republicans of being racists and working “all for political points, all for political gain.”
“To say that we protected, essentially, homegrown Minnesotans. But all these other people who look different, who speak a different language, who have different customs, we do not care about them, we will not pay for them, we will not welcome them, and they can suffer, they can die, and we don’t care,” she continued.
Data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services shows that over 20,000 illegal immigrants have enrolled in the state’s healthcare program, surpassing initial projections for just the first four months of the year. Of those enrolled, 24 percent are children under the age of 18. Between January and the end of April alone, the program paid out $3.9 million in claims.