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Warren Proposes Free Taxpayer-Funded Health Care for Illegal Immigrants

November 8, 2019

Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said her Medicare for All plan covers "everyone regardless of immigration status."

"Medicare for All, as I put this together, covers everyone regardless of immigration status," Warren told a crowd of liberal activists on Friday. "And that’s it. We get Medicare for All, and you don’t need the subsidies because Medicare for All is fully paid for, and that’s the starting place."

The senator delivered the remarks at an event sponsored by Mijente, a "pro-Latinx" activist group. Warren said she believes health coverage is a basic human right. She added that granting access to illegal immigrants would help justify amnesty in the future.

"I believe health care is a basic human right, and we fight for basic human rights," she said. "But let me tell you another reason why I do it. It fits with my immigration plan, and that is—my immigration plan is to put the people who are here to stay on a path to citizenship."

Warren’s health proposal is expected to cost $52 trillion over the next decade. She claimed last week that Medicare for All would not increase taxes for the average American by a single cent—a claim that opponent Joe Biden has said is a lie. She is not the only liberal lawmaker interested in extending the entitlement to illegal immigrants in addition to all Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) also supports Medicare for illegal immigrants, according to his immigration plan released Thursday.

"Enact Medicare for All," Sanders's campaign website says. "Which will address racial and other disparities in health care and provide comprehensive care to everyone in America, regardless of immigration status."

Sanders’s plan also promises to make "public colleges and universities tuition and debt-free" for illegal immigrants.