A federal judge has ordered the nation’s health department to stop giving immigration officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first shared this personal data for millions of Medicaid enrollees in a few states back in June. After an Associated Press report revealed the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to block it.
In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) entered into a new agreement allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) daily access to view personal data — including Social Security numbers and home addresses — for all 79 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide. Neither agreement was publicly announced.
This unprecedented sharing of sensitive health information with deportation officials, part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown, immediately triggered the lawsuit over privacy concerns.
The Medicaid data sharing is part of a larger push by the Trump administration to give DHS more information on migrants. For instance, in May, a federal judge refused to stop the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help agents locate and detain people living in the U.S. without legal status.
The order, issued by federal Judge Vince Chhabria in California, temporarily stops the health department from sharing personal data of enrollees in those 20 states, which include 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 providing health coverage to the nation’s most vulnerable residents,” Chhabria wrote in his decision on Tuesday.
Chhabria, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the order will remain in effect until the health department provides “reasoned decisionmaking” explaining its new policy of sharing data with deportation officials.
A spokesperson for the federal health department declined to say directly whether the agency would stop sharing data with DHS. HHS has maintained that its agreement with DHS is legal.
Immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status, as well as some lawfully present immigrants, are not eligible for the Medicaid program, which provides nearly free health coverage. However, federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary program that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms, including for non-U.S. citizens. Medicaid is funded jointly by state and federal governments.
Immigration advocates warn that sharing personal data could scare people away from seeking emergency medical care for themselves or their children. Other anti-immigration measures have made schools, churches, courthouses, and everyday spaces feel unsafe for immigrants and even U.S. citizens who fear being caught in raids.
“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally important,” Washington state’s Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”
