{"id":232784,"date":"2025-07-02T19:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/232784\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:33:09","slug":"trump-administration-sued-for-giving-medicaid-data-to-deportation-officials-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/232784\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration sued for giving Medicaid data to deportation officials | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration<\/a> violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials, a group of 20 states allege in a lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month advisers to the secretary of the Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a>, ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington DC to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).<\/p>\n

All allow non-US citizens to enroll in Medicaid<\/a> \u2013 a jointly funded federal and state health insurance programme<\/a> for lower-income individuals and underserved groups \u2013 to pay for their healthcare expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, California\u2019s attorney general, Rob Bonta, and 19 other states\u2019 attorneys general sued over the move<\/a>. They alleged that the Trump administration\u2019s data release infringes on federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Hipaa).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about flouting seven decades of federal law policy and practice that have made it clear that personal healthcare data is confidential and can only be shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit the public\u2019s health or the Medicaid programme,\u201d Bonta said during a press conference.<\/p>\n

Rob Bonta in Huntington Beach, California, in 2021. Photograph: Allen J Schaben\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The complaint argues that if \u201cmembers of our community cannot trust that the government will keep their medical history and other personal data safe, they will think twice about going to the doctor when needed\u201d. This loss of trust will lead to \u201cirreparable damage due to increased morbidity and mortality\u201d.<\/p>\n

The White House has sought to arm deportation officials with more data on immigrants as they accelerate enforcement efforts across the country. Experts warn that it could be used to help the DHS locate migrants in its mass deportation campaign.<\/p>\n

The new \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge) enlisted technology company Palantir to build a massive repository of data pulled from multiple federal agencies for the purpose of immigration enforcement, according to media reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants\u2019 tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to help agents find and detain people living without legal status in the US.<\/p>\n

The move to shore up the federal government\u2019s data on immigrant Medicaid enrollees appears to have been set in motion in May, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services<\/a> (CMS) announced it would be reviewing some states\u2019 rolls to ensure federal funds have not been used to pay for coverage for people with \u201cunsatisfactory immigration status\u201d.<\/p>\n

As part of the review, the CMS asked California, Washington and Illinois to share details about non-US citizens who have enrolled in their state\u2019s Medicaid program, according to a 6 June memo signed by Medicaid deputy director Sara Vitolo that was obtained by the Associated Press (AP).<\/p>\n

CMS officials attempted to fight the data-sharing request from homeland security, saying that to do so would violate federal laws, including the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974, according to the memo.<\/p>\n

But the legal arguments outlined in the memo were not persuasive to Trump appointees at HHS, which oversees the Medicaid agency. Four days after the memo was sent, on 10 June, HHS officials directed the transfer of \u201cthe data to DHS by 5:30 ET today\u201d, according to email exchanges obtained by the AP.<\/p>\n

HHS is \u201caggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds\u201d, agency spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. The agency has not provided details on the DHS\u2019s role in the effort. Nixon also defended the legality of releasing the data to the DHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cHHS acted entirely within its legal authority \u2013 and in full compliance with all applicable laws \u2013 to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,\u201d he said in the statement.<\/p>\n

But in Tuesday\u2019s lawsuit, the coalition of attorneys general contend that the White House\u2019s actions are sowing fear and confusion that will lead non-citizens and their family members to disenroll, or refuse to enroll, in emergency Medicaid<\/a> for which they are otherwise eligible, leaving states and their safety net hospitals to foot the bill for federally mandated emergency healthcare services.<\/p>\n

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Bonta said in a statement: \u201cThe Trump administration<\/a> 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m sickened by this latest salvo in the president\u2019s anti-immigrant campaign. We\u2019re headed to court to prevent any further sharing of Medicaid data \u2013 and to ensure any of the data that\u2019s already been shared is not used for immigration enforcement purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-232784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114785314751176472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}