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California is leading a coalition with 19 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for transferring Medicaid data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Democrat Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California represents the 28th time in 23 weeks – or more than once a week – that California is challenging the president in court.
“Upon information and belief, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handed over a trove of individuals’ protected health data obtained from States, including California, Illinois, and Washington, to other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” the complaint says. “Millions of individuals’ health information was transferred without their consent, and in violation of federal law.”
Those states allow non-U.S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that they say pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars. The Associated Press first reported last month that the sharing of data by HHS to DHS included addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status and claims data for enrollees in those states.
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“In doing so, the Trump administration silently destroyed longstanding guardrails that protected the public’s sensitive health data and restricted its use only for purposes that Congress has authorized, violating federal laws including the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA),” the lawsuit says. The complaint alleges violations of several other federal privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known as HIPPA.
HHS has claimed that the transfer of data to DHS is meant “to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.”
“But Congress itself extended coverage and federal funds for emergency Medicaid to all individuals residing in the United States, even those who lack satisfactory immigration status,” the complaint says. “The States have and will continue to verify individuals’ eligibility for federally funded Medicaid services using established federal systems and cooperate with federal oversight activities to ensure that the federal government pays only for those Medicaid services that are legally authorized.”
Attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington joined the suit.
“President Trump, Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are weaponizing Medicaid to fuel their anti-immigration campaign,” Bonta said at a virtual press conference. “They’re threatening the personal health data of 78.4 million individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid and the children’s health insurance program, CHIP, for their mass surveillance and federal immigration enforcement plans.”
“This isn’t about cutting waste or going after fraud,” Bonta said. “This is about going after vulnerable people who entrusted the state and the federal government to help them access health care, a basic human right.”
The complaint says they intend to “protect their State Medicaid programs, and to prevent them from being used in service of an anti-immigrant crusade, or other purposes unrelated to administration of those programs.”
Under Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz’s leadership, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) “is aggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds to subsidize care for illegal immigrants – that includes California,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This oversight effort – supported by lawful interagency data sharing with DHS – is focused on identifying waste, fraud, and systemic abuse.”
“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,” Nixon added. “We are not only protecting taxpayer dollars – we are restoring credibility to one of America’s most vital programs. The American people deserve accountability. HHS is delivering it.”
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The plaintiffs claim their states “will lose federal funds as fear and confusion stemming from the disclosures cause noncitizens and their family members to disenroll, or refuse to enroll, in emergency Medicaid for which they are otherwise eligible, leaving States and their safety net hospitals to foot the bill for federally mandated emergency healthcare services.”
“States will also ultimately bear the negative public health costs associated with reduced utilization of healthcare for childbirth and other emergency conditions,” the complaint says. “Meanwhile, the public will suffer irreparable damage due to increased morbidity and mortality.”
Bonta noted California’s Medi-Cal program provides public healthcare coverage for one out of every three Californians, including more than two million noncitizens. Because not all noncitizens are eligible for federally funded Medi-Cal services, California uses state-only funds to provide a version of the Medi-Cal program to all eligible state residents, “regardless of their immigration status,” he said.
“The Trump Administration has upended longstanding privacy protections with its decision to illegally share sensitive, personal health data with ICE. In doing so, it has created a culture of fear that will lead to fewer people seeking vital emergency medical care,” Bonta added in a statement. “I’m sickened by this latest salvo in the President’s anti-immigrant campaign. We’re headed to court to prevent any further sharing of Medicaid data — and to ensure any of the data that’s already been shared is not used for immigration enforcement purposes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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