Three Key Takeaways:
- Florida taxpayers are shouldering a massive $660 million healthcare bill in 2024 for services provided to illegal immigrants, exposing the hidden costs of Biden’s border crisis.
- The financial burden is most severe in Miami-Dade County, with emergency room visits from illegal immigrants driving up costs, stretching local resources, and raising insurance premiums for legal residents.
- Governor Ron DeSantis has taken action by introducing legislation to track Medicaid use by undocumented immigrants, showing a significant decline in costs, while Trump has removed sanctuary protections for hospitals to enforce immigration laws.
Folks, the numbers are in and they’re as bad as many of us suspected.
Taxpayers are footing a staggering bill for illegal aliens in 2024 alone.
And Florida just dropped a bombshell exposing the hidden costs of Biden’s border crisis.
Florida taxpayers shelled out a whopping $660 million bill for healthcare provided to illegal immigrants in 2024. This isn’t political spin – it’s cold, hard data straight from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
Let’s put that in perspective. That’s $660 million that could have gone to improving healthcare for legal Florida residents, reducing property taxes, or fixing the roads that residents drive on every day.
Instead, it’s being diverted to pay for 67,700 emergency room visits by people who entered our country illegally.
The heaviest burden falls on Miami-Dade County, which alone paid $282 million for healthcare services to illegal immigrants. That’s followed by Broward County at $77 million, Hillsborough (Tampa) at $64 million, Orange County (Orlando) at $38 million, and Duval County (Jacksonville) at $34 million.
And that’s just in Florida alone . . .
This isn’t just about numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about resources being stretched thin in our communities. It’s about longer wait times in emergency rooms. It’s about higher insurance premiums for hardworking Floridians.
AHCA Deputy Secretary Kim Smoak didn’t mince words when she said, “The data confirms that the financial burden of illegal immigration continues to strain Florida’s healthcare system.”
She added that the agency remains “dedicated to fulfilling Governor DeSantis’ commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars from being used on individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
Governor DeSantis has been leading the charge on this issue. In 2024, he signed legislation requiring hospitals that accept Medicaid to present an immigration question to patients.
While answering is optional, the policy has already shown results – a 54% decline in Medicaid billings to a state program for undocumented immigrants’ medical assistance, according to Politico.
State Representative Randy Fine (R), who co-sponsored the immigration legislation package, put it bluntly when discussing last year’s $500 million healthcare cost for illegal immigrants: “That’s half a billion dollars stolen from real Floridians.”
Some hospitals are experiencing resistance to the new policy.
At Tampa General Hospital-Spring Hill, nearly two-thirds of patients declined to answer the citizenship question during the first quarter of 2024. At Flagler Hospital near St. Augustine, a whopping 96% of emergency room patients refused to provide their citizenship status.
This pattern of non-disclosure raises legitimate questions. Why the reluctance to answer a simple citizenship question? The policy doesn’t prevent anyone from receiving emergency care – it simply tracks the data so taxpayers can see where their money is going.
President Trump has also taken action on this front.
In January, he removed hospitals from the list of locations that are immune to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity. This represents a significant shift from previous policies that created “sanctuary” locations where immigration laws couldn’t be enforced.
For years, those of us concerned about illegal immigration have been labeled as heartless or worse. But this isn’t about lacking compassion – it’s about fiscal responsibility and the rule of law.
Every dollar spent on healthcare for someone who entered the country illegally is a dollar not spent on – or returned to – American citizens and legal residents who play by the rules.
The Penn State football program has a saying that applies here: “Success with Honor.”
It means winning the right way, following the rules, and being accountable. Shouldn’t we expect the same standards in our immigration policy?
Florida’s healthcare system – not to mention the nation’s – is buckling under costs it was never designed to bear. At some point, hard choices will need to be made about priorities.
Do we continue to allow precious healthcare dollars to be diverted to those who entered our country illegally, or do we stand up for the taxpayers and legal residents who built this great nation?
The data from Florida should be a wake-up call for the entire country. This is the real cost of open borders, and it’s unsustainable.