Oregon is on track to spend more than twice as much on taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants as it will on its own state police, according to new state budget figures.
Documents reviewed from the Oregon Health Authority show the state will allocate roughly $1.5 billion between 2025 and 2027 toward the Healthier Oregon Program. This government-funded initiative provides full medical coverage to immigrants regardless of legal status. By comparison, Oregon plans to spend about $717 million on the Oregon State Police during the same period a gap of more than half a billion dollars.
The program began under then-Gov. Kate Brown in 2021 as “Cover All People,” but has since been expanded under Democratic leadership to include all adults, regardless of age or immigration status. State officials describe the effort as a move toward “health equity,” while critics say it’s another example of Oregon’s misplaced priorities, prioritizing illegal immigrants over public safety and struggling taxpayers.
Take a look at this… 🤔🤔🤔
Oregon will spend more in its current budget period on free health care for immigrants regardless of legal status than on state police by $500 million or more, according to state officials and budget documents.
Oregon officials expect to spend $1.5… pic.twitter.com/Y6v56N1JDw
— Conservative in Oregon (@oregonducksmama) October 13, 2025
According to the Oregon Health Authority, 25% of the program’s funding comes from federal Medicaid matching dollars, even though federal law prohibits illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid benefits. Policy analysts note that the state has used “creative accounting” to bypass those restrictions, taxing hospitals and Medicaid insurers, drawing down federal matching funds, and reimbursing the same entities, effectively using federal money to pay for benefits barred under federal law.
Since its inception, spending for the program has ballooned by more than 1,100%. The initial $100 million budget cap in 2021 has grown to more than a billion, and enrollment has nearly doubled state projections. By 2024, the program had more than 93,000 participants, almost twice the original estimate of 55,000, creating a $260 million shortfall in the state’s health budget.
The controversy comes as Democrats in Washington push to remove federal restrictions that limit Medicaid spending for illegal immigrants a key demand in ongoing negotiations to end the government shutdown. The proposal would roll back reforms signed by President Trump under the One Big Beautiful Bill, which ended inflated federal matching rates for emergency care for illegal aliens and closed accounting loopholes used to divert Medicaid funds.
House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that the Democratic plan could add another $192 billion to the federal deficit, calling it a “massive giveaway to noncitizens while American families struggle.”
Under Oregon’s current policy, illegal immigrants do not need to show proof of long-term residency to qualify for taxpayer-funded care. Participants receive the same benefits as legal residents, including full primary and emergency coverage, maternity care, and preventative health services.
The Oregon Health Authority maintains that federal dollars are only used for emergency and pregnancy care, but state budget documents reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that hospital reimbursement schemes continue to intermingle state and federal funds, effectively expanding illegal immigrant coverage beyond what federal law allows.
Meanwhile, nightly protests continue outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, where demonstrators have clashed with law enforcement and demanded an end to deportations.
