Streeter: The feds are cutting Medicaid for many noncitizens. Maryland should step in.

To a former church girl like me, the most Christian Bible verse of all is Matthew 25:35: “for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in.”

In other words, when vulnerable, hungry strangers in danger come to you for help, you give it to them. That’s not just what Jesus would do, but what good people and good societies do, no matter their spiritual beliefs.

So I was confused and ashamed when I read about the federal government’s new guidelines under the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that, as of Oct. 1, kick up to 15,000 noncitizens in Maryland in incredibly precarious circumstances — like certain victims of domestic violence and human trafficking — off Medicaid, according to the Maryland Department of Health. The Trump administration argues that federal taxpayer dollars should not go toward noncitizens, citing concerns about waste and fraud.

Is this who we are as a country, especially one that so many people call a Christian nation, even though technically we are not? Apparently so, and it’s disgusting.

But a Maryland coalition has a plan to help as many of those immigrants as possible, as well as others in danger of losing their healthcare. And should it go to a vote in 2027, I think we need to do everything we can to convince our lawmakers to pass it, no matter how hard that may be.

“What the Trump administration did in its first term, and is now doing, is just a horrible attack on the most vulnerable people,” said Vincent DeMarco, president and co-founder of advocacy group Maryland Health Care for All. “In Maryland we have done all we can to help protect Marylanders from this and we have to continue to.”

On Friday, DeMarco presented a five-step revenue proposal to the state Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission to explain how Maryland could find funds to cover the more than 115,000 residents about to lose their Medicaid coverage, including roughly 15,000 noncitizens. And that’s not to mention the many more who might lose healthcare in 2028.

“We can’t let them take us backward. We have to keep going forward,” said DeMarco, an attorney and longtime advocate for public causes including healthcare, gun violence and climate change. In 2025, he was appointed to the reestablished Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission, so he knows what he’s talking about.

The plan includes continuing the current insurance assessment that expires in 2028 and electing a prescription drug affordability board. Some points are creative, like passing something called the RENEW Act, which would require large out-of-state polluters to pay Maryland billions of dollars to compensate the state for damages caused by climate change, including healthcare costs.

Then there’s the plan to end tax deductions for direct-to-consumer ads by pharmaceutical companies — you know, the ones with attractive people sailing and pushing their grandkids on swings while a low voice explains it could make you gain weight and hear voices? “What we don’t know is that we [the taxpayers] subsidize them, because they take them as a business expense,” DeMarco said. “That money could be used to provide healthcare.”

Another fun idea? Raising the state alcohol tax by 10 cents a drink, which could result in a possible revenue of $215.6 million each year, according to Maryland Health Care for All’s calculations. “Not only do we desperately need the money, because we have a $3 billion deficit, but in addition we found that it reduces drunk driving and underage drinking,” DeMarco said. “I think people will say ‘A dime a drink?’ They can afford that. And if you’re drinking so much that a dime is a burden on you, you should be drinking less.”

The difficulty of passing the five-point plan is still an issue. Maryland’s budget shortfalls mean new tax revenue used to help cover Medicaid could otherwise go toward another state need. But it’s worth trying.

The Maryland Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Maryland has worked to cover inequities in healthcare. The state brought the percentage of uninsured people from 13% to 6% through the Affordable Care Act under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, with help from Maryland’s congressional leadership, according to Maryland Health Care for All. That’s great. We need to keep it up.

Here’s the thing: Even if you either don’t care about undocumented people or actively hate them, it benefits everyone if more people are insured. “We all suffer when our insurance premiums go up when there are more uninsured people,” DeMarco said.

Of course, I’m aware of the many miserable people who would vote against keeping their own feet if having them chopped off would somehow screw over immigrants. Or Black or Latino or LGBTQIA+ people. If that’s you, I can’t help you.

The steps laid out in the five-point proposal would not replace Medicaid or establish single-payer healthcare, but would build on the Affordable Care Act. DeMarco said there are three basic categories of those in need: those fully eligible for free or very low-cost healthcare, those who could be eligible but need additional subsidies, and those who are undocumented. It’s dire for the latter group.

“There’s no federal money for them,” DeMarco said. “That’s gonna take a longer time. The folks I’m talking about are being thrown off and that’s just terrible. It’s hard for the state to totally fix it.”

All in all, if everything proposed is enacted, it could create hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars for healthcare in the state. Again, since the federal government is leaving people adrift, Maryland is trying to make up for it. I’m so glad I live here.

“We can’t solve the whole problem, but we can make things a lot better. We have to make sure that nobody falls through the cracks,” DeMarco said. “This is how the ACA started. We have to finish the job. I think we can do it.”