A new bill from Rep. Gary Drinkwater (R-Milford) could give Mainers a better sense of how much of their tax money is spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants by collecting data on medical expenditures for asylum seekers.

“So the question is, how are we covering them [asylum seekers]? One would assume it’s under MaineCare. So is this one of the reasons that MaineCare has exploded, and we can no longer afford it as a state,” said Rep. Drinkwater speaking with The Maine Wire.

The bill, LD 429, had co-sponsorships from nine Republican co-sponsors, including Sen. Susan Bernard (R-Aroostook).

Drinkwater’s proposal would require hospitals to question patients’ on their immigration status. The hospital will be required to inform the patients that they are not required to answer the question, and that neither immigration status nor refusal to answer the question will impact their ability to receive medical care.

Hospitals must then submit annual reports to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) showing how much money has been spent on medical care for asylum seekers and other undocumented immigrants.

The DHHS will then present the report to the Governor and the Legislative Committee on Health and Human Services, detailing those costs. That report will then be used by the Governor to request reimbursement from the federal government for the aggregate cost of Medicaid and MaineCare for asylum seekers.

It remains unclear if the DHHS would be able to present an accurate report, since asylum seekers could simply refuse to answer questions about their immigration status with no repercussions.

In many cases, asylum seekers are in the country illegally but have made an asylum claim and are allowed to avoid deportation, often for years, while they await the results of their claim. Many asylum seekers only make “defensive” asylum claims, where, rather than approaching U.S. authorities to request asylum, they only make their claim reactively if they are apprehended by immigration authorities.

One 2023 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform claimed that Maine had roughly 16,000 illegal immigrants and their children living in the state, costing $42,496,390.

Those numbers may have grown as illegal immigrants continued to enter the state since the report’s publication.