California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta at a information convention in San Francisco on Dec. 4, 2024. Bonta is main 20 state attorneys normal in a lawsuit looking for to dam federal well being officers from additional sharing Medicaid information and DHS from utilizing it for immigration enforcement.
Jeff Chiu/AP
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Jeff Chiu/AP
Twenty states, led by California, sued the Trump administration Tuesday after federal well being officers shared delicate information about Medicaid recipients with the Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees immigration enforcement.
“The Trump Administration has upended longstanding privateness protections with its determination to illegally share delicate, private well being information with ICE,” mentioned California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta in a assertion saying the lawsuit.
“In doing so, it has created a tradition of worry that can result in fewer individuals looking for important emergency medical care,” Bonta mentioned.
The info switch, which occurred final month, was first reported by The Related Press. High Well being and Human Companies officers directed the Facilities for Medicaid & Medicare Companies (CMS) to share information with DHS from California, Illinois, Washington and Washington, DC, about thousands and thousands of their Medicaid recipients, in line with the AP’s report.
These jurisdictions enable some low-income immigrants, together with some with out authorized standing, who don’t qualify for Medicaid to entry state-funded well being packages.
States routinely should share intensive information about Medicaid enrollees with CMS, together with names, addresses, Social Safety numbers, immigration standing and healthcare info — however say that information is meant to remain confidential.
The go well with, which was filed in federal courtroom in San Francisco, asks the courtroom to cease HHS from sharing Medicaid information with some other federal company and to cease DHS, some other federal company, or the White Home’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) from utilizing the info for immigration enforcement or “inhabitants surveillance.”
It additionally asks the courtroom to order the “impoundment, disgorgement, and destruction of all copies of any Medicaid information containing personally identifiable, protected well being info that has already been unlawfully disclosed to DHS and DOGE.”
Bonta and virtually all the opposite state attorneys normal bringing the federal lawsuit are Democrats.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin despatched NPR a press release that mentioned, partially: “CMS and DHS are exploring an initiative to make sure that unlawful aliens will not be receiving Medicaid advantages which can be meant for law-abiding Individuals.”
The Division of Well being and Human Companies mentioned it doesn’t touch upon litigation, however final month, spokesperson Andrew Nixon mentioned in a press release that the info switch was authorized, and that CMS is “aggressively cracking down on states which may be misusing federal Medicaid funds to subsidize look after unlawful immigrants.”
“This oversight effort — supported by lawful interagency information sharing with DHS — is concentrated on figuring out waste, fraud, and systemic abuse,” Nixon mentioned in the identical assertion. “We’re not solely defending taxpayer {dollars} — we’re restoring credibility to considered one of America’s most important packages.”
All states, nonetheless, obtain emergency Medicaid funds that reimburse hospitals for emergency care no matter somebody’s immigration standing.
The lawsuit comes the identical day the Senate handed deep cuts to Medicaid and different federal profit packages in President Trump’s signature home coverage invoice. The sweeping invoice now heads to the Home for a last vote.
The opposite states becoming a member of the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
The Trump administration, led by the DOGE effort, has taken unprecedented steps to entry and mixture information throughout the federal authorities, and extra just lately, from states. Critics have raised safety, privateness and authorized considerations concerning the effort, and there are greater than a dozen federal lawsuits towards the administration alleging privateness legislation violations.
“It has been extensively reported that the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) has been amassing federal profit information, akin to Social Safety recipient info, and people’ tax info, to construct a searchable database of Individuals’ info for a number of functions, together with to help ICE in immigration enforcement actions,” the lawsuit mentioned.
