LOS ANGELES: Twenty states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, have sued the Trump administration for sharing data about Medicaid recipients with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
“The Trump Administration has upended longstanding privacy protections with its decision to illegally share sensitive, personal health data with ICE,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
“In doing so, it has created a culture of fear that will lead to fewer people seeking vital emergency medical care.”
Health and Human Services officials directed the Centres for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) to share data with the Department of Homeland Security about millions of their Medicaid recipients.
States share extensive data about Medicaid enrollees with CMS, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, immigration status and healthcare information. The data is supposed to stay confidential.
Attorney General Bonta led a multi-state coalition in filing the lawsuit Tuesday (July 1) in the US District Court for the Northern District of California,.
In the lawsuit, the Filipino American attorney general and the coalition argue that the data transfer violates the law and ask the court to block any new transfer or use of this data for immigration enforcement purposes.
“I’m sickened by this latest salvo in the President’s anti-immigrant campaign,” said Bonta. “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.”
Created in 1965, Medicaid is an essential source of health insurance for lower-income individuals and underserved population groups, including children, pregnant women, individuals with disabilities and seniors.
The Medicaid program allows each participating state to develop and administer its own unique health plans. As of January 2025, 78.4 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) nationwide.
California’s Medi-Cal program provides healthcare coverage for one out of every three Californians, including more than two million noncitizens.
Noncitizens include green card holders, refugees, individuals who hold temporary protected status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients and others.
Not all noncitizens are eligible for federally funded Medi-Cal services, and so California uses state-only funds to provide a version of the Medi-Cal program to all eligible state residents, regardless of their immigration status.
Attorney General Bonta leads the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington in filing the lawsuit. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
