Media’s partial truths on immigrant health care at heart of shutdown

You want to know why the government is shut down? Well, to get to the facts

you've got to filter out the noise and the narratives. We're going to peel back the talking

points today and expose the media's spin to this major story. There's a lot of facts to talk about

to get to the whole truth, while the partisan media is only providing you with half. Welcome

to Bias Breakdown. He's trying to frame the shutdown as a democratic shutdown. He also

falsely claimed that Democrats want to give health care, extend health care to illegal immigrants

That is not true. It can go to illegals in emergency hospitals and things like that. But

Democrats are saying that's not true. But when you actually dive in the numbers there

that is a sticking point. And it is true, right? Let's quickly get through some of the logistics

so then we can talk about this health care sticking point that is creating these opposing

narratives. The government shut down last Wednesday after a vote on a continuing resolution

failed to pass. The continuing resolution would have kept the government open at current spending

levels. On this vote, the yeas are 55 and the nays are 45. Three-fifths of the Senate duly chosen

and sworn not having voted in the affirmation. The motion is not agreed to. It had already passed

one chamber of Congress in the House, but in the Senate, it needed 60 votes to pass. Republicans

hold 53 Senate seats, Democrats 45. While Republicans have the majority, they don't have

a large enough majority to do this on their own. They need some Democratic support, and they didn't

get enough of it. The resolution received 55 votes. One Republican voted against it. Three who

caucused with Democrats voted for it. Several votes have been held since the initial one

but the numbers are still not there. Democrats do hold leverage knowing that Republicans

need seven or eight of them to keep the government open. So Senate Democrats want a health care

provision passed in exchange for their votes to keep the government open. And this is where we

get to the meat of the story. Right-leaning media are echoing Republican concerns over a Democrat

demand, which involves repealing a provision of the Big Beautiful Bill, which limited Medicaid

reimbursement funding to states for immigrants here illegally and for non-citizens. Still a big problemo, spending billions of dollars on health care for illegals

A couple of Democrats admitted that's what they're doing. The others keep claiming it's a lie

Illegals are in fact receiving health care paid for by the American people. Fact

Some states are more open about it than others, but it's happening

They're telling you that they don't want taxpayer funded health care for illegals

When you hear this, understand you are being lied to at a very high level

I don't like being lied to. But the big three networks, left-leaning CBS, NBC, and ABC

highlight immigrants in the country illegally would not receive Medicaid benefits under the Democrats' proposal

But the bottom line is that people who are here illegally, if they have not been granted any sort of legal status by the U.S., cannot be eligible for Medicaid

Undocumented immigrants who come across the border, who've been flagged for deportation

they cannot get Medicaid They cannot get Obamacare They can get on the Affordable Care Act That is not legal Democrats are not trying to change that Here are the facts The proposal does not provide health care for illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under the Affordable Care Act. They cannot receive health care subsidies

If left and right leaning media are telling you two completely different things

and sometimes so passionately making their case, then you're left wondering, what is the truth? Are illegal immigrants getting free health care? It's a major flashpoint between

Republicans and Democrats right now. And that same discourse and divide is showing up in news

coverage that is supposed to help us make sense of it all. And I'll tell you before researching

this story, this back and forth from the television had me confused. I asked myself, how can media

outlets state so matter-of-factly two opposite truths about the same issue. I found out the

media is slanting the story, which is a form of media bias. Slant is when journalists play up one

particular angle or piece of information. Through cherry-picking information, slant prevents readers

from getting the full story. This form of bias is closely linked to bias by omission. In this case

here, both sides largely downplayed the facts that would challenge their claims, which is what fuels

these two opposing narratives. We're going to cut through the noise with the full facts. What exactly

are Democrats demanding in their provision, the one that they say must pass before they'll agree

to reopen the government? On page 56 of Democrat Senate Bill, under Section 2141, the Democrats

reference Public Law 119-21. When you look that up, that's the text to what is also known

as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed by Republicans and signed into law on

July 4th this year. Democrat Senate Bill looks to repeal Subtitle B of Title 7 of the Big

Beautiful Bill and make it as if this portion was never enacted or passed and signed into law

So what is that portion of the big beautiful bill? Here is Title VII, Finance. And subtitle B of this section is Health Medicaid. This is a large portion, but the part of it relevant for this is alien Medicaid eligibility, which outlines payment will not be made to a state to cover medical assistance for individuals unless the individual meets a list of criteria of being a citizen or lawfully residing in the U.S

under these listed exemptions. The Big Beautiful Bill also limited emergency Medicaid

using the same legal status definition as above, meaning this portion of Medicaid funding for states

under the new Big Beautiful Bill will be smaller. Democrats want this repealed

I know there was a lot of legal jargon there, but going straight to the original sources

is where you can see these political and media narratives originate from

The fact is the big beautiful bill closed opportunities for federal dollars to cover

certain state medical expenses for immigrants here illegally. Repealing that would open the

door back up for states to receive federal Medicaid funding to cover certain medical expenses for illegal immigrants Some important context here A law was signed by President Reagan in 1986 that states emergency hospitals are not allowed

to turn away patients based on their insurance status or ability to pay

That also means no matter your legal status in the country, medical emergencies must be

tended to. And under emergency Medicaid, states must reimburse their local hospitals for anyone who would be eligible for Medicaid

And now the federal government's reimbursement percentage is lower under the Big Beautiful Bill because it requires the hospitals to consider legal status of the patient

So does any of this mean illegal immigrants will directly receive money in hand or qualify for federal health care programs

No, there are federal statutes that make it illegal for illegal immigrants to qualify for federal health insurance

That is not changing. The two political sides of the media aren't making these things clear

because they'd rather slant the story in a way that supports their political side during this government shutdown

This exchange between CNN's anchor Caitlin Collins and the network's conservative political commentator Scott Jennings

is a great example of how the left and right, even in the media

are selectively choosing their talking point and offering partial truths. Can I say one thing, which is that people who are in the country illegally

cannot get these subsidies that we're talking about? Sure they can. No, they can't

No, they can't. It's federal law, Scott. Who do you think pays when they go to the emergency room

It's the Medicaid emergency program. Going to the emergency room is not getting an Obamacare subsidy

You guys are conflating these issues. You're conflating these issues. People who are in the country illegally also can't get Medicaid

Sure they can. Sure they can. You can run cover for it if you want, but they do get federal tax money

They get federal tax money. It is true that unauthorized immigrants are not getting on Medicaid

It is also true that states can be reimbursed more federal tax dollars to cover emergency medical care for immigrants here illegally

if Democrats successfully repeal this big, beautiful bill provision. We already talked about how this rhetoric is an example of media slant

but it also qualifies as bias by spin, because journalists are selectively choosing which facts to present

to support their particular narrative. Stay with me here. I know this is a lot

What we've been discussing is the media's framing of health care for immigrants in the country illegally

because that's where most of the media focus has been. However, there's another caveat to this story's coverage that is worth pointing out

The Big Beautiful bill also tightened down which immigrants here on some sort of protected status can be eligible for Medicaid

Democrats want to restore coverage eligibility to the groups of non-citizens here

under certain protections, such as refugees, those granted asylum, or DACA recipients

What they are trying to do is reverse a piece of President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill

that would take away healthcare eligibility for those 1 million people who are again lawfully present in the country Right leaning outlets at times did not make the distinguisher between illegal

immigrants and other non-citizens. They're asking Donald Trump, who ran and won on fighting illegal

immigration to give $200 billion of free health care to illegal immigrants. That $200 billion

figure comes from this chart, which shows America would save nearly $200 billion over the next 10

years, not just by removing state funds for illegal immigrant care, but the majority of

those savings are from medical benefit cuts for these subset groups of immigrants who are non-citizens

but in the U.S. under certain programs, protecting them from deportation. So Fox's coverage there was

misleading by not including the caveat that this number includes nixing certain non-citizen

coverage too, something even this White House press release does differentiate. All in all, there's been a lot of confusion surrounding this topic

We didn't even get into the other parts of the Democrat Senate bill

like the other Medicaid subsidies they want repealed or their push to extend Obamacare

subsidies. There's just been so much noise around illegal immigrant health care

and not a lot of clarity. Left and right-leaning media each lean on facts that support their side

It's true illegal immigrants don't qualify for Medicaid benefits, but it's also true that the big, beautiful bill included language

limiting federal reimbursements to states for illegal immigrants' medical expenses, and the Democrats want that repealed

Instead of laying out that full picture, each media aligning with either side of the partisan divide went on the attack

calling the other liars like how you heard off the top of this story. But when you poke holes in both narratives

you see each one leaves out key facts to fit a political agenda

That's the power of spotting media slant. You realize there's more to a story than what you're being told

And that's your bias breakdown. Thank you for watching this week's episode

I feel like this was a little bit of information overload in this week's story, but I really hope that at least some of it was digestible

It's a big topic, and I really see this as the beginning of a major health care debate

I do see us potentially covering this topic more in depth on a broader scale outside of this Democratic proposal

because there are some major changes on the horizon if Congress doesn't act on the health care front

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So big thank you to them and to you for listening and watching and tuning in

I'll see you next time