States sue to stop health data sharing with DHS : NPR
California Prosecutor General Rob Bonta at a press conference in San Francisco on December 4, 2024. Bonta heads 20 prosecutors of the State in a trial to prevent federal health officials from sharing MEDICAID and the DHS to use it for the application of immigration.
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Jeff Chiu / AP
Twenty states, led by California, continued the Trump administration on Tuesday after federal health officials shared sensitive data on the beneficiaries of Medicaid with the Ministry of Internal Security, which oversees the application of immigration.
“The Trump administration has changed long -standing privacy protections with its decision to illegally share sensitive and personal health data with ice,” California prosecutor Rob Bonta ignored in a statement announcing the trial.
“In doing so, it has created a culture of fear that will lead to fewer people looking for vital emergency medical care,” said Bonta.
The data transfer, which occurred last month, was reported for the first time by the Associated Press. The best health and social services officials ordered the centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) to share data with the DHS of California, Illinois, Washington and Washington, DC, about millions of their beneficiaries of Medicaid, according to the AP report.
These jurisdictions authorize certain low -income immigrants, including certain legal status, which are not eligible for Medicaid to access health programs funded by the State.
States must regularly share in -depth data on MEDICAID registrants with CMS, including names, addresses, social security numbers, immigration status and health care information – but say that data is supposed to remain confidential.
The prosecution, which was filed before the Federal Court of San Francisco, asks the court to prevent the HHS from sharing the data from Medicaid with any other federal agency and preventing DHS, any other federal agency or the Ministry of Government of the White House (DOGE) from using data for the application of immigration or “surveillance of the population”.
He also asks the court to order “the restraint, the release and destruction of all copies of all Medicaid data containing personally identifiable and protected health information which has already been illegally disclosed to DHS and DOGE.”
Bonta and almost all the other attorney general of the State who intend the federal trial are Democrats.
DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, sent a statement to NPR indicating in part: “CMS and DHS explore an initiative to ensure that illegal foreigners do not receive the advantages of Medicaid which are intended for laws respectful of laws.”
The Ministry of Health and Social Services said that he did not comment on disputes, but last month, spokesman Andrew Nixon declared in a statement that data transfer was legal and that CMS fell aggressively against the states that could abuse federal Medicaid funds to subsidize care for illegal immigrants “.
“This surveillance effort – supported by the sharing of data -legal interinitions with the DHS – is focused on identifying waste, fraud and systemic abuses,” said Nixon in the same declaration. “We don’t only protect taxpayers’ dollars – we restore credibility to one of the most vital programs in America.”
All states, however, receive Medicaid emergency funds which reimburse hospitals for emergency care, regardless of someone’s immigration status.
The trial occurs the same day that the Senate adopted deep cuts in Medicaid and other federal services programs in the Bill on the Handsome Policy of President Trump. The scanning bill is now going to the House for a final vote.
The other states that join the trial 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 DOGE effort, has taken unprecedented measures to access and aggregate data through the federal government and, more recently, states. Critics have raised security, privacy and legal concerns concerning effort, and there are more than a dozen federal proceedings against the administration alleging violations of the Act respecting privacy.
“It has been largely reported that the Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) has amassed data on federal advantages, such as information on social security beneficiaries and tax information of individuals, to create a database consulted in several purposes, in particular to help ice in the application of immigration,” said the trial.
