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Audit reveals just how much Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for illegal alien healthcare

February 28, 2025 | | Print Article

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker loves doling out taxpayer cash back to the people — who aren’t American citizens.

State Republican leaders are blasting Pritzker over a revealing audit dubbed “gross mismanagement” recently released at the request of GOP lawmakers, Fox News Digital reported.

“This audit shows that the governor, that the program was rampant in overspending,” John Curran told Fox Digital. “It spent well in excess of 200% more than what was estimated in budgets and in appropriations.”

Illinois taxpayers forked over $1.6 billion just for healthcare provided to illegal aliens, far exceeding Pritzker’s estimated projections, according to Fox.

“And it also showed that the governor was unable to manage this program,” Curran continued. “Thousands of people were allowed to sign up for free healthcare for years on the state taxpayer dime that should not have been eligible under the parameters laid out for this program, and the governor failed to even seek federal reimbursement when eligible on certain services for years, leaving federal dollars on the table.”

“The governor was papering over this large spending with tax increases over the last several years, as well as COVID relief funds being spent on this rather than actually trying to rein in spending in the state of Illinois,” Curran said. “Now that federal dollars have tapered off, we have a large budget deficit in Illinois this year and the governor is now being forced to try to end the program for all working adults.”

“We cannot afford this,” Curran continued. “The state of Illinois, state taxpayers, should not be burdened with providing free healthcare, especially for [the] working-age population. People that should be out and working in paying taxes and getting healthcare in the marketplace, just like every other Illinois state taxpayer is doing, so we want to bring the program to an end.”

Illinois Auditor General Frank J. Mautino discovered that more than 6,000 people were marked as “undocumented” in state programs even though they had Social Security numbers. Some of these individuals might actually be legal permanent residents who qualify for Medicaid, which would allow the state to receive federal money to cover their healthcare. Illinois checked 94 of these cases and found that 19 of them were legal residents, not noncitizens, and should have been classified correctly.

Nearly 700 people in the program’s senior health division were under the age of 65, the audit found. While nearly 400 enrollees were found to have been in the country for more than five years, making them eligible for Medicaid.

So, now the state can seek reimbursement from the federal government, putting all American taxpayers on the hook.

Pritzker has been a strong defender of providing “sanctuary” for illegal aliens. Instead of working with the Trump administration on deportation efforts that would ultimately provide relief for taxpayers and strained resources, Pritzker is calling for “universal healthcare” in response to the audit.

“The broader context is people need to get health care,” Pritzker said.

That’s awfully “broad” governor. X users had plenty to say in response:

Pritzker doesn’t appear to see that way, and many suspect he’s gearing up to make a run for president in 2028 as he’s been doing a flurry of press conferences. Including this gem:

Bingo.

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