There are 79 million people in the country who participate in the federal Medicaid program, commonly known as Medicaid. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will soon be able to access the Medicaid database to view personal information such as home address and ethnicity to track down the whereabouts of illegal immigrants. The Associated Press reported that according to the data sharing agreement signed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security on the 14th, Medicaid user information will allow immigration agents to find “the location of aliens” across the country.
ICE and CMS Sign Data Sharing Agreement
The agreement states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will use data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to find out the identity and location of aliens. Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security are studying various options to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot obtain Medicaid benefits intended to be provided to law-abiding Americans.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be able to see the names, addresses, dates of birth, ethnicity, race and social security numbers of all Medicaid users from the Medicaid database. The federal and state governments jointly fund the Medicaid program, which provides almost free health insurance to low-income groups, including millions of children.
The agreement does not allow immigration officials to download the personal information of Medicaid users. Immigration officials can only view the information at specific times: between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until September 9.
California Attorney General Bonta wants to apply for an injunction
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on the 17th that California will apply to the court for an injunction, asking the judge to block the Medicaid user personal information sharing agreement. He said that some people may be afraid to see a doctor for fear of being targeted by the Trump administration.
An official from the Federal Health Service Center said in an anonymous interview: “We are forced to become immigration agents.”
Legal and illegal immigrants often use “emergency Medicaid”
According to regulations, illegal immigrants and some legal immigrants cannot participate in the Medicaid program. However, federal law requires all states to provide temporary “Emergency Medicaid” to pay for life-saving emergency room medical services, which covers everyone, including non-citizens. Both legal and illegal immigrants often use “Emergency Medicaid”.
Hannah Katch, an adviser to the Federal Center for Health Services during Biden’s tenure, said that many people registered for “Emergency Medicaid” in the most desperate and helpless situations. “It is hard to imagine that the Federal Center for Health Services would violate the public’s trust in this way.” She said that the personal information of Medicaid users is usually not shared with other agencies unless it is an enforcement action to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse of the Medicaid program.
