The people in Aurora, across Colorado and all over the United States aren’t fooled. They know what’s really behind this government shutdown, and they know what’s really at stake: the health and financial security of millions of working families.
Despite a flood of rhetoric pouring out of Washington, the facts are clear. This government shutdown didn’t happen because Democrats want to hand out “free health care to illegal immigrants.” That claim, repeated by President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and other top Republicans, is a flat-out lie.
As the Associated Press and other news agencies have reported, immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for Medicaid nor insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The Democrats’ position is simple and entirely focused on Americans. They’re demanding that Congress extend the tax credits and Medicaid funding that keep health insurance affordable for millions of working citizens and small-business families.
Republicans in Congress must stop hiding behind falsehoods and come to the bargaining table. It’s time to restore funding, extend the ACA subsidies and end this manufactured crisis.
The enhanced premium tax credits created under the American Rescue Plan Act and extended through the Inflation Reduction Act have been mostly successful health care policies. They reduced premiums for millions of Americans, helping marketplace enrollment more than double to 24.3 million people in 2025. That’s 24 million people, who are not “welfare recipients” and not “illegals.” They are mostly low- and middle-income workers, families, small-business owners and the self-employed.
The Sentinel joins a long list of newspapers and other entities insisting that the U.S. health care system is quagmire, desperate for meaningful reform. Until that happens, these marketplace tax credits are critical.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which provides news and research linked to healthcare, 92% of marketplace enrollees receive some level of premium tax credit. If these credits expire at the end of next year, premiums will skyrocket by more than 75% on average. On top of that, insurers are already planning an 18% increase in gross premiums, anticipating the chaos that would follow if Republicans continue this blockade.
And with Aurora’s average household income about $10,000 less than that of other metro communities, even more residents here will be hard hit by a GOP holdout on health care subsidies.
Republican leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson claim Democrats are “holding the government hostage” over a single issue. In truth, it’s the GOP that’s holding millions of families hostage. These are families who depend on affordable health insurance to survive.
This isn’t just another partisan squabble. Democrats have drawn a line in the sand because the irrefutable evidence makes it clear the GOP plan would set off a national health care debacle that would critically affect almost every American.
The numbers tell the devastating story. Nearly half of adults who buy insurance on the individual market work for a small business or are self-employed. For them, these tax credits are the difference between staying insured or joining the ranks of the uninsured. Small businesses rarely offer employee coverage, meaning these workers rely on the ACA marketplace as their only realistic source of comprehensive health insurance.
If the enhanced subsidies disappear, many Americans will face a dangerous choice: pay hundreds more each month for coverage, or go without insurance altogether. A KFF poll found that 70% of ACA enrollees said they could not afford to keep their plans if premiums nearly doubled. Four in 10 said they’d drop coverage completely. That’s not just bad for them, it’s bad for everyone.
When millions of paying participants are driven out of the insurance pool, costs go up for those who remain. Hospitals and providers will see more uncompensated care. Premiums and health care costs for all Americans will rise.
The Republican plan doesn’t save money. It just shifts the burden onto already middle-class families, small businesses and the insured public.
The ultimate cruel irony here is that the pain will be felt hardest by Republican voters. The states that stand to lose the most are the ones that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, such as Florida, Texas, the South and Utah. These are states where the ACA’s marketplace has been a lifeline for farmers, gig workers and rural families who can’t get coverage through an employer.
Republicans made a miscalculation here, a big one. Polls show that three-quarters of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support extending the ACA tax credits. Even among Trump’s loyal base, 57% favor keeping them. Americans don’t want their government shut down over partisan games. They want stability. They want affordable health care. They want Congress to do its job.
Instead of listening to their own voters, GOP leaders have chosen to peddle conspiracy theories about “Cadillac Medicare for illegal immigrants.” It’s cynical, dishonest and dangerous. Every day this shutdown drags on, hospitals face uncertainty, small-business owners lose confidence and working families fear the next premium bill.
Republicans can fix this today. All it takes is a willingness to face facts and act in good faith. Restore government funding. Extend the ACA tax credits. Reverse the reckless Medicaid cuts hidden in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
This isn’t a fight about ideology. It’s about doing the math and embracing common sense.
The American people are watching. And they know the truth.
The budget was already hashed out and decided by Congress 5 months ago. Democrats are now holding the government hostage in an attempt to re-negotiate aspects of that same bill. Democrats are playing with semantics when they say illegals are not on Medicaid. They said the same thing about voting until numerous illegals were found on voting roles. Now we are finding many illegals receiving Medicaid. This is not a lie.
Inflation has run wild during the Biden/Harris administration – especially with healthcare. Everyone’s costs have gone up for healthcare in the form of increased premiums and higher copays. Why should those on government charity be somehow exempt. We live in a free market economy, not a communist one. Healthcare is not a right, but a commodity that has to be paid for, like everything else. Keep in mind that to qualify for Obamacare subsidies, only income is considered, not wealth, savings, property owned or many other investments. Democrats are demagoging this issue for political reasons.
Misinformation reaches ordinary Americans when politicians engage in outright lies. The opinion piece states a fact – immigrants here illegally ARE NOT ELIGIBLE for Medicaid or ACA subsidies. American citizens who are Small Business owners and workers will be hurt. This group covers over 50% of the US workforce! That is the truth!
Technically, I understand you may be correct about the law. But there are many ways around the law. One way some states and municipalities get around the law is to say that only state dollars are going to illegals for Medicaid. This way they do not violate Federal law. But it is just an accounting gimmick Also, many Medicaid dollars go to E.R.s in Hospitals where many illegals go for care that is guaranteed, even if they can’t pay.
Remember that harboring illegals is also illegal, but many states and cities do this openly and even fight Federal officials trying to enforce this law.
Lying Democrats are to blame for the shutdown anyone with a brain knows that so you must not have one.
What “illegals” are voting unlawfully? Evidence, please.
Ditto on the Medicaid. Ditto on the evidence
This is an opinion, not a doctoral thesis. I know the routine. When confronted with an opinion the left doesn’t like, demand evidence. Then after exhausting efforts to present evidence, the conclusion is summarily dismissed saying the sources are right-wing propaganda. Sorry, homey don’t play dat. If you expand your sources of information beyond MSNBC and The View, you will find all the evidence you need.
Outlays of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services before Obamacare,
FY09: $972 billion
Outlays of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services 14 years after Obamacare: $2.2 trillion
The only thing covering any of this is Medicare Part A. The rest is pure deficit spending, at the same level as the annual deficit.
“Affordable health care” doesn’t start with providing exponentially increasing subsidies that don’t actually lower the real cost of medical services. If that was the case, college tuition and federal student loan debt wouldn’t be at all time highs. Money for payments on the back end mean nothing if the charges on the front end aren’t addressed first.
This is a better editorial than the one y’all published a couple weeks ago. Keep it up, and go further.
I see many press organizations turned in their credentials rather than become Pentagon stenographers. The media should do that to the entire Republican leadership. Stop giving their views any oxygen.
Report honestly on what is happening, but never allow the Fascist’s arguments to get published.
Especially the failed businessman at the head of the Fascist government. Never publish his name. The administration. The White House. Use those identifiers.
Don’t comment on anything they publish online. Don’t put them in front of live microphones – everything pre-recorded, so you can choose to not air it at all if any of it is offensive.
They want to silence the opposition. Silence everything EXCEPT the opposition.
Mr. Some Guy: Are you sure you aren’t on the Sentinel editorial staff? Sounds like you are advancing a North Korean style media. You know the public there still believes they are under imminent attack from the United States because that is all they’ve heard for the past 20 years. Their window to the world is under absolute control by the State media.
“They want to silence the opposition. Silence everything EXCEPT the opposition.”
Woof, the projection in this post can be seen from Pluto. It’s like we should pretend the entire last decade never happened.
You say The AP reports “immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for Medicaid nor insurance through the Affordable Care Act.” The author of this piece again says Republicans are liars and the problem of delaying any forward progress in DC, Republicans make up fairytales about illegals receiving free benefits they are not lawfully allowed.
I guess state funding medical care, using Federal dollars sent many from NGO’s that have Gov. grants they take, and this transfer of grant funding fraudulent as qualifying beneficiaries are out of the question. It’s out in the open is hard to recognize and beyond the grasp of reality for some.
Maybe, Dave, perhaps you can just ask a simple question to Google and see it’s response as I did with two simple general questions.
1) Question-Are undocumented immigrants eligible for federal health care programs and benefits? Answer – With very limited exceptions, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal health care programs and benefits, including Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and subsidized plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
2) Question- Are undocumented immigrants receiving state funded health care? Answer- Here is a breakdown of how undocumented immigrants access health care in the U.S.:
State-level coverage
A growing number of states and Washington D.C. provide health coverage using only state funds, though some of these programs are facing budget pressures and potential scale-backs.
Colorado: Runs the OmniSalud program, which uses state funds to provide subsidies for private insurance to undocumented residents. The program is facing funding constraints for 2026.
Come on Dave, who is lying? Is it AI? Dave… and don’t bother to ask Jason Crow, or Gov. Polis to verify how much taxpayers subsidize illegals in this state with their health care. They will refuse a straight answer. And certainly, any denial, and slick avoidance to answer is not a lie, right Dave? The cracks in the plaster on this political mess are pronounced and showing those that are interested what’s been going on and most important who in the media is in the misinformation business.