The proposed bill seeks to repeal the law passed by the DFL-controlled legislature in 2023, which has led Minnesota Care to expand access to undocumented non-citizens.
St. Paul, Minnesota – A Minnesota House Committee has proposed to restrict undocumented immigrants from obtaining state-funded public services, including a low-income health program known as Minnesota Care. We heard testimony about the bill on Monday.
The law, titled HF10, will result in undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for the North Star Promise Scholarship Program. However, Monday’s meeting at the Health and Monetary Policy Committee focused primarily on the Minnesota Care section of the bill. It aims to repeal the measures passed by the DFL-controlled council in 2023. I live in Minnesota. The law only came into effect at the beginning of this calendar year.
Rep. Isaac Schultz (R-Elmdale Township) announced the bill at Capitol in front of the packed committee room. Abolition of undocumented immigrants’ eligibility for Minnesota care will save approximately $99 million over the next two years, according to a nonpartisan House analysis.
“Today, Minnesotans are seeing their taxes on people here illegally in public programs like Minnesota Carre. Minnesota Carre is becoming a magnet for people from abroad,” Schultz said. I did. , a family in blue-collar Minnesota. ”
However, many of the state’s major healthcare organizations, including the Minnesota Medical Association, the Minnesota Nurses Association, the American Cancer Society Advocacy Division, and Henepin Healthcare, are opposed to the proposal. In a joint letter with Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando, Hennepin Healthcare CEO Jennifer DeCubellis said stripping MinnesotaCare access from undocumented immigrants would lead to even lower reimbursement rates for health care providers and that “excluding Minnesotans from basic health care coverage poses a serious public health threat.”
Mary Klinke of the Minnesota Hospital Association also testified that if HF10 passes, more undocumented immigrants can seek emergency care rather than seeing primary care physicians.
“We want to be warned before this law is passed,” Klinke said.
The labor group also testified against the bill on Monday, including Samantha Diaz of SEIU-Local 26.
“We choose to be strict with immigrant families,” Diaz said, “we will not do anything to deal with the rising medical costs.”
The committee also heard testimony in favor of the American Experimental Center bill. This said new laws expanding access to Minnesota Care are opening the state to more fraud because it doesn’t require evidence of undocumented status to receive services. It is not yet clear how many undocumented people have used the new Minnesota Care eligibility in 2025 so far, according to state officials’ testimony.
Despite several questions from members of the DFL Committee, GOP members were able to advance HF10 to the state and local government committees with a narrow 11-10 vote. The bill could continue to move through the committee while Republicans hold a temporary majority in the Chamber of Commerce. Under the power sharing agreement approved earlier this month, the GOP will lead all committees up to the March special elections for District 40B.
