Aftyn Behn Promises To Reinstate Medicaid Spending For Illegal Immigrants On Taxpayers’ Dime
Tennessee Democratic congressional candidate Aftyn Behn promised Monday to restore Medicaid spending for illegal immigrants if she is elected in her state’s special election.
Behn said during a virtual GOTV rally that she intends to restore Medicaid funding that was cut following President Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill passed in July. Before the government shutdown began on October 1, Democrats proposed a continuing resolution (CR) that would have repealed the big, beautiful bill’s “alien eligibility for Medicaid” restriction, which only allows Medicaid coverage to noncitizens who are lawful permanent residents or who are part of a certain group eligible for coverage.
“What I would do in Congress is permanently restore the Medicaid funding that was cut because of the big, ugly bill. That’s the lifeline for a lot of rural hospitals… But what we really need to do is invest deeply in these, like overall support for rural health systems,” Behn said. (RELATED: Here are Tennessee Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn’s most unhinged tirades…so far)
Aftyn Behn says she would restore taxpayer funding for Medicaid for illegal immigrants that Republicans eliminated:
BEHN: “What I would do in Congress is permanently restore the funding for Medicaid that was cut…” pic.twitter.com/sF6a7Wlgvg
– RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 2, 2025
Republicans argued in October that the Democrats’ proposal would require taxpayers to spend $200 billion on health care services for illegal immigrants and noncitizens. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in June that approximately 1.4 million noncitizens and illegal immigrants were covered by Medicaid before the passage of this big, beautiful bill.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed out in October that Medicaid spending on illegal immigrants nearly tripled during former President Joe Biden’s administration, when illegal border crossings also reached record levels by surpassing 2 million and 3 million encounters in a single fiscal year.
In 2023, medical professionals in Southern California reported that the health care system had been “bombarded” with illegal immigrants and that U.S. citizen patients were having to endure longer wait times. Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health, said 8,000 illegal immigrants made 20,000 medical visits in 2023, causing the city’s health departments to receive more than $10 million in uncompensated medical services.
California, Illinois, and Minnesota all expanded their public health coverage to include illegal immigrants, leading to enormous financial hardship in each state. California spent $8.5 billion on immigrant health care in 2024, while Illinois had to spend about $800 million annually.
Behn hopes to represent Tennessee’s 7th District, including parts of Nashville, following the resignation of former Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green. The Democratic candidate said she hated Nashville during her February 2020 appearance on the “Year old GRITS” podcast and called Tennessee “racist” in a 2019 op-ed. She then stormed into Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office and screamed as security dragged her out, resurfaced footage from 2019 showed.
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