Fox Business opinion writer Larry Kudlow used a roughly $50 trillion Medicare for All estimate alongside his own $1 trillion immigrant-benefit figure, while federal analyses treat those policy costs separately.
In an Oct. 16 Fox Business opinion column, Kudlow argued the proposals conflict with Democrats’ affordability message. He put Medicare for All at about $50 trillion and said expanded benefits for undocumented immigrants could add $1 trillion “by my lights.”
The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report underlying the health-care estimate projects $49.394 trillion in single-payer health care costs for people under 65 over 2027–2036. After modeled savings and other Medicare-related budget items, it projects a $47.410 trillion federal deficit impact before additional revenue options.
That federal figure does not represent an equivalent increase in total national health spending. The CEA says the model shifts much of the financing from employer and household premiums, state Medicaid contributions and patient cost-sharing to the federal budget. Employers and households would stop paying many premiums and cost-sharing amounts, the report says, and a full assessment would consider both sides of that shift.
The CEA’s coverage table includes undocumented residents in the public plan from the model’s 2027 transition year. Separately, it estimates $361 billion to $475 billion in added federal spending over 10 years if undocumented residents became eligible for Medicaid, food assistance and housing vouchers after mass amnesty. Its estimate for the full Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) immigration-policy package is $440 billion to $613 billion. Kudlow’s $1 trillion figure is his own estimate.
Across seven DSA proposals, the CEA projects a $48.90 trillion net fiscal burden, or $52.84 trillion before wealth-tax revenue, in constant 2026 dollars over 2027–2036. The wider package includes Medicare for All and immigration policies, among other proposals; the immigration component is not the same as the separate benefits estimate. An earlier report on the CEA’s immigration-policy estimate covered that range. The CEA presents its results as calculations under chosen assumptions, not a forecast of a definite 10-year outcome.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign supports Medicare for All, but its current materials do not specify eligibility by immigration status. His 2018 Michigan plan said residents who paid state taxes would qualify regardless of federal documentation status. Kudlow also characterized Texas Senate candidate James Talarico as opposing oil and gas drilling. Talarico’s current campaign says his energy plan would protect oil and gas jobs while expanding wind, solar and geothermal energy; it does not state a specific position on fracking.
Congress.gov lists no Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for the 2025 Medicare for All Act, H.R. 3069. The U.S. midterm election is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.
