Shaheen's Medicare For All Would Cover Illegal Aliens And Sex Changes For Minors: Reports

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

The premise of Medicare for All is simple: The government collects taxes from American businesses and individuals and uses them to pay for all medical procedures, the “single payer” for all treatments, prescriptions, and medical services.

For progressives like Stefany Shaheen, that system ensures universal healthcare coverage.

“I think Medicare for All is where we can best be channeling our energy,” Shaheen said. “We need a system that’s going to work for everybody. Healthcare should never be a privilege for the few who can afford it. It has to be a right everybody has access to.”

And for progressives, “everybody” means everybody — including illegal immigrants and people seeking sex change operations.

But while other advocates of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single-payer system have openly touted its inclusiveness, Shaheen would not answer NHJournal’s questions about the specifics of Medicare for All.

Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, D- Mich., has acknowledged that the single-payer system he and his fellow Democrats are advocating would cover illegal aliens and sex-change procedures. In a July interview with Semafor, he defended extending coverage to illegal aliens who pay taxes. He also supports taxpayer-funded coverage for sex-change procedures and has defended allowing surgery for minors, arguing that medical decisions belong to patients, parents, and doctors rather than government.

Abortions would be paid for by taxpayers as well, all under the same Sanders’ Medicare for All system endorsed by El-Sayed and Shaheen.

It won’t be cheap, either.

In 2020, the nonpartisan Urban Institute estimated that Medicare for All would cost taxpayers $34 trillion over a 10-year period. This year, John Holahan, an Urban Institute fellow, said the price tag has doubled in the past six years because of inflation and other factors.

How would Shaheen pay for it? “Studies have shown that Medicare for All can save us up to $1 trillion,” Shaheen says, but that study has not been substantiated. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office has rebutted this claim, projecting annual federal subsidies of $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion to launch a single-payer system.

In April, Shaheen, who has pledged to “dismantle” the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, told The Dartmouth she would redirect immigration-enforcement dollars to help pay for healthcare. However, even with Trump’s increased spending on the agency, ICE collects around $35 billion, about 1 percent of the $3 trillion needed to cover Sanders’ single-payer system.

Shaheen has also mentioned “taxing billionaires” and higher taxes on the wealthy, though she hasn’t given any specifics. That is also problematic for the NH-01 Democrat. In fiscal 2025, the federal government collected $2.656 trillion in total individual income taxes from all income groups. That’s less than the projected cost of Medicare for All.

Shaheen is at odds not just with her GOP opponent, but with the Democratic member of Congress she hopes to replace. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas told WGIR radio host Chris Ryan he is a “no” on Medicare for All.

“I haven’t supported that, and I’ve been clear about that since I first ran for Congress,” Pappas said, though he supports a government-funded “public option” to compete with private insurance. Many healthcare experts believe that creating a taxpayer-funded health payment plan, which wouldn’t require any taxes and whose employees would be government workers, will eventually force private insurers out of the market, leaving a single payer, the taxpayers.

Shaheen reiterated her support for Medicare for All at Monday’s Mount Washington Valley Economic Council debate in North Conway. Her opponent, Republican Anthony DiLorenzo, repeated his opposition.

“My opponent is on the record saying competition doesn’t work in healthcare, which is absolutely untrue. Apparently, she’s unaware of things like generic drugs, which reduce our drug costs by 90%, or advancements in cardiovascular treatment. Competition provides the best product at the lowest price,” DiLorenzo said.

“Wait until the government runs your health care. It will be a total disaster.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.