Ice given access to Medicaid data in move critics call a privacy betrayal
The data sharing agreement will allow Ice to find 'the location of aliens', according to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press. Medicaid is the nation's single largest health insurer, providing coverage for 79 million low-income, disabled and elderly people.
Related: US couples with a noncitizen partner: did you decide to get married because of immigration policy concerns?
'This is about the weaponization of data, full stop,' said Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic US representative from Washington state, who has worked extensively on US healthcare, in a statement on social media.
'Trump said he would go after the 'worst of the worst' immigrants, yet now is giving ICE EVERYONE's Medicaid data, even as ICE targets US citizens. Oh, and undocumented immigrants can't even enroll in Medicaid.'
The AP first reported the existence of an agreement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) in June. Trump administration officials reportedly overrode the warnings of career civil servants who said such a data sharing arrangement would violate multiple statutes at the insistence of top aides to the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
'Multiple federal statutory and regulatory authorities do not permit CMS to share this information with entities outside of CMS,' Medicaid's deputy director, Sara Vitolo, wrote, according to a memo obtained by the AP in June.
The new agreement reported by the AP said: 'ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE.'Trump administration officials defended the data sharing agreement as a tool to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid.
'HHS and CMS take the integrity of the Medicaid program and the protection of American taxpayer dollars extremely seriously,' said a health and human services (HHS) spokesperson, Emily Hilliard, in response to questions from the Guardian. 'With respect to the recent data sharing between CMS and DHS, HHS acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.'
Hilliard's statement went on to criticize the Biden administration for opening 'the floodgates for illegal immigrants to exploit Medicaid'. Hilliard said data sharing was part of an 'oversight effort – supported by lawful interagency data sharing with DHS' that 'is focused on identifying waste, fraud, and systemic abuse. We are not only protecting taxpayer dollars – we are restoring credibility to one of America's most vital programs.'
In June, the Trump administration similarly defended the data sharing agreement as part of an effort to ensure undocumented migrants who are not eligible for the program did not receive benefits.
'President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries,' said the DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. 'To keep that promise after Joe Biden flooded our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens CMS and DHS are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.'
The president and congressional Republicans cut $1tn from Medicaid in early July, which is estimated to result in nearly 12 million beneficiaries losing coverage over a nine-year period.
The Trump administration is seeking to boost arrests in its crackdown on undocumented migrants, hoping to detain as many as 3,000 people a day. The administration arrested about 650 people a day during the first five months of the administration, according to the AP.
The administration has also enacted a strategy of arresting migrants at churches, courthouses and at a wide range of workplaces. Immigrant farm workers reportedly feel 'hunted like animals' and immigrant construction workers face exploitation, as immigration agents have sought to increase arrests.
Undocumented migrants are generally not eligible for Medicaid and only some lawfully present migrants may obtain coverage under the program. Eligible noncitizen immigrants represent only about 6% of people currently enrolled in Medicaid, according to the healthcare research non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Income-eligible undocumented immigrants could once enroll in Medicaid in California, but new enrollment in the program was paused by the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.
It is unclear whether Ice agents have already accessed Medicaid information, according to the AP. However, even the existence of such an agreement could deter people from seeking needed medical care, including for children.
'This is a privacy violation of unprecedented proportions and betrayal of trust, as the government has explicitly said, for decades, that this information will never be used for immigration enforcement,' said Ben D'Avanzo, a healthcare strategist at the National Immigration Law Center, on social media.
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