How many undocumented immigrants are enrolled in Medicaid in states that offer it as of 2025?

1. Federal rule and the baseline: undocumented people are not eligible for traditional Medicaid

Federal law excludes people without lawful immigration status from federally funded Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare and ACA Marketplace subsidies; instead, undocumented immigrants may only receive narrowly defined Emergency Medicaid and other limited “limited‑scope” services reimbursable under federal rules ^{[3] [4]}. Multiple policy analysts and fact sheets make this point central: undocumented immigrants do not have access to traditional, federally funded Medicaid coverage ^{[3] [4]}.

2. States carving out coverage with state dollars — the important exception

A subset of states has chosen to use state funds to provide full or partial Medicaid‑like coverage to undocumented residents — notably California, and a group of other states described in state‑by‑state trackers maintained by NILC and KFF. California’s Medi‑Cal program enrolled about 1.6 million undocumented people under its state‑funded expansion as of mid‑2025, and the state has considered policy changes like freezing new enrollments to control costs ^[1]. Newsweek and KFF reporting highlighted that 14 states offered health coverage to undocumented migrants as of mid‑2025, and KFF projected that as many as 1.9 million people could lose coverage if federal policy penalized states for offering such programs ^[2].

3. Why a single national number is not available in current reporting

Available sources document state programs, notable state counts (California’s 1.6 million), and national projections of people affected by policy shifts (KFF’s 1.9 million scenario), but they do not publish a contemporaneous, verified nationwide tally of undocumented persons enrolled across all state‑funded programs as of 2025 (available sources do not mention a definitive national total). Federal datasets confine Medicaid eligibility to citizens and certain lawfully present immigrants, complicating federal aggregation of undocumented enrollment figures ^{[5] [3]}.

4. Competing figures and how analysts derive estimates

Analysts use state reports, program enrollment notices and modeling to build national estimates. KFF’s analyses and reporting cited scenario estimates (for example, calculating how many could lose coverage if states ended programs or faced match‑rate penalties) rather than a census of current enrollees ^[2]. Advocacy groups and state agencies publish program‑level numbers (e.g., California’s 1.6 million in Medi‑Cal) and notices about program changes ^{[1] [6]}, while national think tanks and legal clinics emphasize the legal baseline that undocumented people remain ineligible for federal Medicaid ^{[4] [3]}.

5. Context: policy fights and near‑term disruptions that blur the data

The 2025 federal reconciliation and budget actions, and proposed penalties for states that use state funds to cover undocumented immigrants, have created projections about lost coverage (KFF’s 1.9 million figure) and prompted states to alter enrollment rules — actions that change counts rapidly and make a point‑in‑time national headcount unstable ^{[2] [7]}. Additionally, several state programs paused or limited enrollment (for instance, Illinois’ HBIA changes and Utah’s closed enrollment notes), meaning roll‑ups based on earlier program rules would be outdated ^{[6] [8]}.

6. What the sources agree on — and where they disagree

Sources consistently agree on the federal rule: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for traditional Medicaid ^{[3] [4]}. They diverge in emphasis: state and local reports document substantial state‑funded enrollments (California’s 1.6 million) while national outlets and analysts model potential impacts of federal policy changes (KFF’s projections of up to ~1.9 million affected), rather than asserting a single verified enrollment total ^{[1] [2]}.

7. Bottom line for someone seeking a number today

If you want a nationwide, verifiable count of undocumented people enrolled in Medicaid‑style programs as of 2025, current reporting does not provide it; you must compile state program data (for example, California’s 1.6 million) and reconcile differences in program definitions and enrollment windows. For policymaking or reporting, cite state disclosures ^[1] and KFF’s modeled projections ^[2], and note that federal law excludes undocumented people from traditional Medicaid ^[3], which is why national administrative totals are not straightforwardly available.