Republicans and Democrats offer competing claims about whether people who entered the country unlawfully are benefiting from Medicaid.
“The law prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA. There’s no money, not a penny of federal dollars that are going there,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sept. 30.
Yet Republicans say millions of people who entered the country illegally do receive federal health benefits.
“By some estimates, 20 million illegal aliens came [here] from every country, all around the world,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Oct. 2, referring to the years of the Biden administration.
“[Democrats] gave them all this parole status so that they could get enrolled onto taxpayer benefits.”
The war of words has erupted during a government shutdown because of Democrats’ demand that all health-related portions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) be repealed as part of a continuing funding resolution.
The dispute is over competing visions for the scope of government-funded health. Democrats favor a more expansive list of noncitizens who can apply for federal benefits. Republicans, through the OBBB, have shortened the list considerably.
Here’s a look at which immigrants can now apply for Medicaid, and how that’s set to change in 2026.
Qualified Aliens
Under current federal law, “qualified aliens” can apply for federal benefits. This category includes people lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
Generally, there is a five-year waiting period before eligibility begins, though most states waive that for immigrant children and pregnant women.
Parolees are also qualified aliens. Federal law gives the director of Homeland Security the discretion to release them into the United States temporarily, “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
More than 2.8 million people were paroled into the country between February 2021 and January 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Parolees are eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA Marketplace after one year.
Immigrants who are granted asylum or refugee status are also qualified aliens. They have no waiting period.
Qualified aliens also include people who are under an order of deportation that has been withheld, come from certain designated countries, are victims of domestic violence, are victims of sex trafficking, are members of certain Indian tribes, or certain others.
Hellbound and Down 