How Texas Can Save $50 Billion Each Year

Last week, Texas officials announced that the state spent more than $1 billion on health care for “illegal immigrants” in fiscal year 2025. This article on FoxNews.com provides us with a slew of statistics to show the financial burden immigrants are imposing on Texas taxpayers. A billion dollars is a lot of money, but it is meaningless without the full context.

The article doesn’t tell us what the state spends on health care for non-immigrants, even though that information is readily available. Each year, the state spends about $50 billion on health care. Non-immigrants account for about 98 percent of the state’s health care costs. Providing readers with the full context does not fit Fox’s narrative of denigrating immigrants.

Neither Fox nor Texas officials has an issue with taxpayers paying the health care expenses for non-immigrants. Neither questions the moral premise—altruism—that we have a moral duty to place the needs of others before our own interests. They object when those others speak with a foreign accent. Unwilling to question altruism, Texans (and Americans) can only complain about its application.

Focusing on what Texans pay to provide health care to immigrants isn’t the actual issue. The fundamental issue is why Texans are forced to provide health care for anyone. The answer is the unquestioned acceptance of altruism.

Presumably, Texas officials want to save the state $1 billion a year by no longer providing health care for immigrants. Those officials could save taxpayers $50 billion each year by no longer providing health care for anyone. But for that to occur, they must first reject altruism.