On the first day of the government shutdown, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) slammed her Republican colleagues for not showing up to work this week and for pushing what she says is the false narrative that undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are receiving federal health care benefits.
At a press conference today, Clark said: “Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise are both from Louisiana. Most children in Louisiana are on Medicaid. 64% of all births in Louisiana are paid for by Medicaid. 74% of nursing home residents in Louisiana are on Medicaid. Yet Republicans are willing to shut down government, refusing to even show up for work this week because they want to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion.”
Clark: Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise are both from Louisiana. Most children in Louisiana are on medicaid. 64% of all births in Louisiana are paid for by medicaid. 74% of nursing home residents in Louisiana are on medicaid. Yet Republicans are willing to shut down government,… pic.twitter.com/CoYRcjiUu3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 1, 2025
Note: The latest Democratic bill does not seek to change the existing federal law which bars undocumented immigrants from getting federal health care coverage.
(The disputed Republican claim is tied to a provision concerning state Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act that has its origins in EMTALA, a Reagan-era emergency care law that requires hospitals accepting Medicaid and Medicare to examine and treat patients — documented or not — who present with a medical emergency. In the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), money for that emergency treatment was reduced and it’s part of what the Democrats want restored.)
Democrats do seek, as Rep. Clark references, to restore the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in the OBBBA, to extend federal subsidies for people insured through the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), and to protect health care benefits for those who are “lawfully present” in the U.S. — refugees and people seeking asylum who are still going through the legal process. Those who are “lawfully present” are not “undocumented” nor “illegal.”
Clark accused Johnson and Scalise of wanting to “defund health care for children and seniors and pregnant women because they want to pay for billionaires tax cuts.”