Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a federal lawsuit on Thursday challenging the Biden administration’s plan of extending Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, benefits to more than 200,000 illegal immigrants.
The lawsuit, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota Western Division.
The Biden Admin's attempt to unlawfully steer broad ACA benefits to illegal immigrants is part of a larger pattern of an administration that fails to take our constitutional institutions seriously.
TN is proud to join 14 other states in this lawsuit.
➡️https://t.co/gIdVMrIO7g pic.twitter.com/Z4nK5PpThj
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) August 8, 2024
In addition to Skrmetti, state attorneys general from Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Virginia joined the lawsuit.
The lawsuit challenges a final rule by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called the “Clarifying the Eligibility of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Recipients and Certain Other NonCitizens for a Qualified Health Plan Through an Exchange, Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit, Cost-Sharing Reductions, a Basic Health Program.”
The agency’s final rule amends CMS’ definition of “lawfully present” for public healthcare benefits to now include unlawfully present aliens who have been granted deferred action under DACA and employment authorization.
Set to take effect on November 1, the agency’s final rule would make more than 200,000 DACA recipients eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans, including 6,360 DACA recipients in Tennessee.
It is estimated that there are approximately 162,000 to 218,000 illegal aliens residing in Tennessee, costing taxpayers between approximately $721 million and $971 million per year.
“The rule of law means if you don’t like what a law says, you work to achieve a legislative change – you don’t get to pretend the law says what you want,” Skrmetti said in a statement.
“This attempt to unlawfully steer broad health care benefits to illegal immigrants is part of a larger pattern of an administration that fails to take our constitutional institutions seriously. Instead of engaging in the hard work of passing legislation, we see endless attempts to illegally rewrite laws through regulation alongside an effort to delegitimize the courts that can check this executive overreach,” Skrmetti added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
