Staff Reports
Illinois is putting a pause on their taxpayer-subsidized health care program for non-citizens, and for good reason! This program has already cost taxpayers a whopping $831.6 million. Governor J.B. Pritzker made some changes to the program, limiting it to only cover non-citizen seniors over 65, with a budget of $550 million. And guess what? The enrollees have to start paying their own co-pays and some of the costs too. It’s about time they take some responsibility!
Back in July 2023, the program cost $63.1 million, and in August, it skyrocketed to $135.9 million. That’s a whole lot of taxpayer money going down the drain. The Pritzker administration promised that they would stop the program if enrollment reached 16,500 seniors. But guess what? They never followed through on that promise. Surprise, surprise!
State Senator Chapin Rose is not happy about this massive waste of taxpayer dollars. He points out that they allocated $650 million for the program, but it’s projected to cost over a billion dollars. And Governor Pritzker expects us to just trust him to manage it? Yeah, right! It’s clear that this budget is just a big joke.
To make matters worse, Illinois has seen over 18,000 non-citizens arrive in the past year, and more are on their way. With the southern border crisis still ongoing, who knows how many more will end up in our state. It’s time to put a stop to this madness and start prioritizing the needs of American citizens.
But of course, there are always groups out there defending these wasteful programs. Healthy Illinois, a pro-healthcare group, is urging people to continue enrolling in the program, despite the planned suspension. Seriously? We can’t afford to keep pouring money into a broken system.
Representative Adam Niemerg is also questioning the real cost of this program to Illinois taxpayers. It’s about time someone started asking the tough questions. How much more are we going to be on the hook for because of these disastrous open border policies? It’s time to hold our leaders accountable and demand better for our hard-earned money.
