Poll: Only 33 Percent of Americans Approve of Health Care for Illegal Aliens

Only one-third of Americans approve of giving illegal immigrants access to a national health insurance program, according to a poll released Monday.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Monday found that 33 percent of Americans believe that the federal government should give illegal immigrants access to health care under a national health insurance program, whereas 62 percent of Americans think this is a bad idea, and five percent remain unsure about giving illegal immigrants health care.

This survey arises as 11 of the 2020 Democrat presidential candidates signaled they support giving American taxpayer-funded health care to all illegal immigrants in the United States.

Democrats who have backed giving health care to illegal immigrants include former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), author Marianne Williamson, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), entrepreneur Andrew Yang, and Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO).

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Director of Research Steven Camarotta said recently that giving health care to illegal immigrants could cost up to $660 billion per decade.

Republicans and Independents widely oppose giving health care to illegal immigrants, while a majority of Democrats support giving health care to illegal immigrants.

Ninety-three percent of Republicans oppose giving health care to illegal immigrants, while 67 percent of independents oppose the measure, compared to 60 percent of Democrats, who back giving health care to illegal immigrants.

Other surveys have found similar findings to the Marist poll. A Rasmussen poll released in June found that about 55 percent of Americans said that they oppose giving illegal immigrants taxpayer-funded health care in their state. Roughly 60 percent of independents said that they oppose providing health care to illegal immigrants.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll surveyed 1,346 U.S. adults from July 15 to July 17, with a margin of error 3.5 percentage points.