WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees.
The Department of Health and Human Services first shared this data for millions of Medicaid enrollees in a few states in June. After an Associated Press report exposed the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to block it.
In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reached a new agreement allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) daily access to view the personal information — including Social Security numbers and home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide. Neither agreement had been made public.
The unusual sharing of personal health data with deportation officials, part of the Trump administration’s broad immigration enforcement efforts, sparked the lawsuit over privacy concerns.
This Medicaid data sharing is just one part of the administration’s plan to give DHS more access to migrants’ information. For example, in May, a federal judge declined to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help officers find and detain people living in the U.S. illegally.
The order, issued by federal Judge Vince Chhabria in California, temporarily stops the health department from sharing personal data of enrollees in the 20 states involved, including California, Arizona, Washington, and New York.
“Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid — a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation’s most vulnerable residents,” Chhabria wrote in his decision on Tuesday.
Chhabria, appointed by President Barack Obama, said the order will remain in effect until HHS provides “reasoned decisionmaking” for its new policy of sharing data with deportation officials.
A spokesperson for the federal health department declined to say whether the agency would stop sharing data with DHS, though HHS insists that its agreement with DHS is legal.
Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, along with some lawfully present immigrants, cannot enroll in the full Medicaid program, which offers nearly free health coverage. Federal law does require states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary program that covers only lifesaving services in emergency rooms for anyone, including non-U.S. citizens. Medicaid is funded jointly by states and the federal government.
Immigration advocates warn that sharing personal information could scare people away from seeking emergency medical care for themselves or their children. Other immigration crackdowns have made schools, churches, courthouses, and everyday places feel unsafe for immigrants and even some U.S. citizens who fear being caught in a raid.
“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally important,” said Washington state’s Attorney General Nick Brown. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”
