AOC won’t directly answer whether illegal immigrants should get taxpayer-funded healthcare

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., repeatedly sidestepped a question about whether she believed illegal immigrants should receive taxpayer-funded healthcare during a CNN town hall on Wednesday night. 

Ocasio-Cortez, who continues to generate buzz as a possible 2028 presidential contender or a potential primary challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appeared alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to address questions about the ongoing government shutdown.

Jill Ireland, identified by CNN as a California Democrat who works in insurance, submitted a pre-taped question: “Do you think taxpayers should be paying for the medical care of immigrants who are in the country illegally?” 

Ocasio-Cortez responded by calling out what she described as a “common lie” from Republicans who accuse Democrats of shutting down the government to provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants.

“We already know that it’s federal law and federal statute that undocumented people cannot be covered by the [Affordable Care Act], they cannot be covered by Medicaid, they cannot be covered by Medicare. Period. That is the law of the land. There are plenty of federal laws on the books now,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 

The “Squad” member then took aim at Vice President JD Vance, who she accused of “trafficking this other misconception” regarding the claim that emergency Medicaid programs provide healthcare for illegal immigrants, calling it “whole cloth storytelling.”

“The truth of the matter is we have a federal law, as it should be, that any person who walks into a hospital in desperate need of medical attention receives that medical attention regardless of their insurance status, and regardless of who they are,” she continued. “And I don’t know about you, but me as a human being, I don’t want to live in a world where if a human being is struck by a car or is getting rushed into a hospital, that the people in the ER surgical room are asking for your insurance information or asking for documents before they save your life.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins then asked the Democrat if she thinks providing taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants “should be the law.”

“I believe, personally, that healthcare is a human right. I believe that every person should be able to go to the doctor. But I believe that right now, federal law is the federal law,” Ocasio-Cortez told Collins. “And that absolutely you know that U.S. citizens and people who pay into our programs deserve to be covered by these programs. And I mean, once again, I do believe that the federal laws that we have on the books are appropriate.”

“But if you can choose, do you believe that should be changed?” Collins pressed the lawmaker. 

“Pardon?” Ocasio-Cortez reacted.

“If you could choose, do you believe that the federal law should be changed from that?” Collins repeated the question. 

“I don’t — I believe in a single-payer healthcare system, where if you go in and you need a doctor, you can get the medical attention that you need,” Ocasio-Cortez responded, avoiding a direct answer.