KFF Health News – The Trump administration has ordered states to investigate certain individuals enrolled in Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve received more than 170,000 names collectively — an “unprecedented” step by the federal government that ensnares the state-federal health program in the president’s immigration crackdown.
Advocates say the push burdens states with duplicative verification checks and could lead people to lose coverage just for missing paperwork deadlines.
Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present immigrants are eligible for Medicaid, which covers low-income and disabled people, and the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Those without legal status are ineligible for federally funded health coverage, including Medicaid, Medicare, and plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
“We are tightening oversight of enrollment to safeguard taxpayer dollars and guarantee that these vital programs serve only those who are truly eligible under the law,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release announcing the verification effort in August.
The release said all 50 states would receive names to check within a month.
To gauge the effort’s progress, KFF Health News in October reached out to Medicaid agencies in 10 randomly selected states. Five provided the approximate number of names they had received from the Trump administration, with expectations of more to come:
Colorado had been given about 45,000 names, Ohio 61,000, Pennsylvania 34,000, Texas 28,000, and Utah 8,000. More than 70 million people are enrolled in Medicaid.
Most of those states declined to comment further. The other five — California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and South Carolina — refused to say how many names they were ordered to review or did not respond.
In August, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began sending states the names of people enrolled in Medicaid that the agency suspected might not be eligible …
