Pritzker's proposed budget to eliminate health care program for non citizen adults
'There are lots of priorities I'd like to do immediately if we had the resources to do it. We cannot do it this year and so that's why we had to make some changes,' Pritzker told reporters following his budget address.
The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA) program, which covers adults ages 42 to 64, costs the state more than $400 million every year. Pritzker already scaled back the program in 2023 when it was expected to come in way over budget.
'I really do believe that we should be covering everybody,' Pritzker said. 'Unfortunately, we expect that the federal government is going to stop reimbursing for any of that cost and they were reimbursing for some of that cost.'
The Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus didn't agree with the idea.
'We believe that healthcare is a human right and we believe that taking people off of health care is not the right answer,' State Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) said during a press conference after the governor's speech.
The members say they're going to fight to keep the program going.
'This is just the beginning,' Villa said. 'This is the governor's proposed budget and now we have a few months here to work hard and look line item by line item to see where we're going to be able to make things up.'
Republicans have been calling on the state to completely eliminate the non citizen health care programs.
'I'm glad he's finally listened on the immigrant health care piece, eliminating a lot of that,' State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), said. 'He didn't eliminate all of it.'
But Republicans don't think the program will get cut at the end of the day.
'I don't think it's real,' House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna), said in a press conference following the governor's budget address. 'I think it's just going to set us up for a tax increase.'
While the proposed budget cuts the non citizen health care program for adults, it does keep funding for a program for non citizen seniors 65 and up to get health care.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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