Anti-Medicaid ad uses baseless claims about immigrants to warn against expansion
Missouri’s anti-Medicaid expansion committee has sent out mailers claiming baselessly that undocumented immigrants will crowd citizens out of Missouri hospitals if voters endorse a proposed constitutional amendment expanding the state’s Medicaid program.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid — a fact the mailers neglect to address.
“Amendment 2 means illegal immigrants flooding Missouri hospitals… while we pay for it!” read the mailers, which feature a person wearing a Mexican flag face mask.
The mailers, paid for by the official No On 2 in August committee, were sent to voters less than a week before the Aug. 4 primary.
“It comes across as extremely racist,” said Trinidad Molina, an organizer with the Kansas City-based Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation organization.
“If someone just has their own political opinion about why they don’t think Medicaid’s a good program, that’s one thing, but why make up lies and incite such a strong visual association that’s trying to blame a whole nation of people?”
Jack Cardetti, spokesperson for the pro-expansion committee, characterized the mailer as “deplorable.”
“This is a disgusting last-minute attempt by a desperate campaign that has simply run out of facts,” Cardetti said.
The anti-expansion committee treasurer, Debra McClelland, did not respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday afternoon.
St. Charles Republican Sen. Bob Onder, a strong opponent of expansion, said he had not seen the mailer and was not “familiar with that particular message.”
The mailer cites a 2018 opinion piece on Forbes’ healthcare blog, written by a self-described “libertarian-leaning conservative health reformer,” who estimates that American citizens finance $18.5 billion in healthcare costs annually for undocumented immigrants.
“Amendment 2 would expand benefits for people who shouldn’t even be in our country, rewarding illegal immigration with taxpayer handouts,” the mailer asserts.
A TV ad making similar claims, also paid for by the anti-expansion committee, debuted in the Springfield media market this week.
Medicaid expansion would provide coverage for an estimated 300,000 low-income Missourians. However, undocumented immigrants do not qualify Medicaid benefits. Neither are they eligible to purchase healthcare through the Affordable Care Act marketplace or enroll in Medicare or CHIP, a federal health care program for children.
The mailers and TV spot come just days after the anti-expansion committee received $238,689 in dark money contributions from Cornerstone 1791, a secretive nonprofit that does not disclose its donors.
The Missouri Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint in May alleging that Liberty Alliance USA, another nonprofit owned by Cornerstone 1791, was created to work against the candidacy of state Auditor Nicole Galloway, the Democrat challenging Gov. Mike Parson this fall.
Both Liberty Alliance USA and Cornerstone 1791 share an address with the Kansas City law firm of former Missouri GOP Chairman Todd Graves.
Pelopidas LLC, a company closely tied to wealthy St. Louis businessman Rex Sinquefield, has also given the anti-expansion committee at least $166,589, according to campaign finance reports.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 6:50 PM.