$20 million for 173 migrants. That’s the staggering reality of Washington state Democrats’ latest taxpayer-funded program — a healthcare scheme that was supposed to cover 1,200 noncitizen residents but couldn’t even reach 200 before running dry.
The program represents yet another example of progressive policy ambitions colliding with fiscal reality. What was sold to Washington taxpayers as a manageable, compassionate response to federal policy changes has instead revealed itself as a case study in government overreach and fiscal mismanagement.
Democrats and their NGO allies in the Evergreen State rushed the program through the legislature, promising coverage for illegal immigrants losing federal Medicaid under Trump administration cuts. The plan called for helping 1,200 noncitizens. The first-year target was 300.
The program hit 173.
That jaw-dropping shortfall raises serious questions about whether lawmakers and advocacy groups did even basic cost analysis before committing taxpayer dollars. The gap between promise and delivery suggests either deliberate deception about the program’s true costs or incompetence in understanding the financial realities of long-term care coverage.
“DISAPPOINTING AND FRUSTRATING” — SEIU 775 SECRETARY-TREASURER ADAM GLICKMAN ON THE $20M RUNNING OUT BEFORE REACHING 200 MIGRANTS
According to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775, which lobbied hard for the bill, the $20 million appropriation collapsed under its own bloated costs long before hitting even the scaled-back 300-migrant goal. Union secretary-treasurer Adam Glickman admitted the failure was “disappointing and frustrating,” the Washington State Standard reported.
The union’s disappointment, however, rings hollow given their role in championing the legislation without apparently grasping its financial unsustainability. This is the same organization now demanding vastly increased funding to fix the problem they helped create.
Now lawmakers are scrambling to explain how a program meant to help 300 people in its first year needed five times the funding to actually work.
Democrat Rep. Nicole Macri broke down the math: covering the initial 300-migrant target will require at least $100 million. Covering the full 1,200? Another $100 million every single year.
That’s a half-billion-dollar commitment over five years — for illegal immigrants — while Washington state faces massive budget deficits and cuts to citizen services.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Washington taxpayers. The state is already grappling with budget shortfalls that have forced difficult conversations about funding for education, infrastructure, and services for legal residents. Yet Democratic lawmakers are being asked to quintuple down on a program that serves noncitizens while citizens face service reductions.
The program was launched in response to Trump administration cuts to Medicaid that ended coverage for noncitizens. State Democrats claim 14,000 noncitizens will lose federal Medicaid by October.
Rather than accept federal enforcement of citizenship-based benefits, Washington Democrats decided state taxpayers should foot the bill instead.
This represents a fundamental disagreement about the proper role of state government and the boundaries of taxpayer obligation. The decision to substitute state funding for eliminated federal benefits creates a precedent that could prove extraordinarily expensive if applied across other policy areas where federal and state priorities diverge.
SEIU 775 is now ramping up pressure on the legislature to dump tens of millions more into the program. The union’s argument? Unionized home healthcare workers could lose jobs if the program doesn’t expand.
The pitch: save union jobs by giving taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants.
This framing reveals what may be the actual priority behind the program’s advocacy — not humanitarian concern for migrants, but preservation of union employment and the dues revenue that comes with it. It’s a political calculation wrapped in compassionate rhetoric.
Even union official Glickman admitted the odds are tough. Washington state is already drowning in budget overreach and massive deficits. “Getting the entire thing seems pretty challenging, given this budget situation,” he said. “We are pushing for them to do as much as they can.”
Translation: they’ll take every dollar they can squeeze out of taxpayers, even if the program can’t deliver what it promised.
The incremental approach — taking “as much as they can” rather than what’s actually needed — virtually guarantees this issue will return year after year, with advocates demanding more funding each budget cycle while taxpayers are left holding an ever-growing bill for a program that never meets its stated objectives.
The failure exposes the real cost of Democrats’ open-border policies at the state level. When federal enforcement ends handouts to noncitizens, blue states scramble to replace the funding — with no plan, no budget discipline, and no accountability for the math.
Washington Democrats are now facing a choice: admit the program was a fiscal disaster and pull the plug, or double down and demand hundreds of millions more from taxpayers already footing the bill for a collapsing state budget.
Either way, the 173-person reality check should serve as a warning to other states considering similar programs. Good intentions don’t balance budgets, and compassion without fiscal responsibility isn’t governance — it’s political theater performed at taxpayer expense.
