Gov. JB Pritzker’s recently unveiled 2026 budget proposal includes a controversial cut.

It proposes to get rid of two programs that allow immigrants without legal status to receive healthcare coverage, specifically impacting undocumented adults aged 42 to 64. However, coverage for those 65 and older will remain intact.

The move has sparked backlash from the General Assembly’s Latino Caucus, as well as pro-immigrant advocacy groups.

Meanwhile, an audit released this week reveals that the programs’ costs far exceeded initial estimates.

There are three separate programs known as the Health Benefits for Immigrant Senior and Adults (HBIS) for the following age groups: 42-to-54; 55-to-64; and 65 and older. The first two age groups are facing dissolution.

The report, which was requested by lawmakers and conducted by the Office of the Auditor General, found that HBIS (55-64) was estimated to cost $58.4 million in the first three years while the actual cost was $262.2 million, or 286% higher than initial projections.

The cost of the 42-to-54 program saw similar numbers.

State Rep. Travis Weaver (R-Peoria) has been against the program since it was first introduced, saying it doesn’t make much sense.

“When you think about Illinoisans that are here legally, Illinois citizens, they don’t get free healthcare,” Weaver said. “I don’t think it makes sense to give free healthcare to people who are here illegally.”

The auditor general’s report also found that over 6,000 people who enrolled in the programs already had social security cards, meaning that those individuals qualify for Medicaid or private insurance.

Close to 54,000 adults were enrolled in the program in 2023, much higher than the 32,700 projected enrollees.

“I think the governor knew this was the Titanic of programs. He should’ve shut it down as soon as he knew that. I don’t know when that was, but clearly it was before the state of the state budget address,” Weaver said.

Despite some of the concerning findings in the audit, state Rep. Norma Hernández (D-Melrose Park) said the report’s findings give the governor’s office new ways to develop the program to make it less costly.

“They’ve been able to get federal match dollars for this along with pausing the programs for new applicants to enroll and removing LPR, legal permanent residents, who now qualify for marketplace insurance,” said Hernández, co-chair of the Latino Caucus.

The HBIS measure was introduced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when essential workers, many of whom are immigrants without legal status, were dying at a higher rate than the rest of the population.

“There’s a reality that this population specifically does contribute to our economy greatly where we will not survive without this population," Hernández said. “There is another reality where healthcare is a human right.

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