The Trump administration announced a new initiative Tuesday aimed at getting noncitizens disenrolled from the Medicaid program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
“CMS will begin providing states with monthly enrollment reports identifying individuals whose citizenship or immigration status could not be confirmed through federal databases,” the agency said in a press releaseopens in a new tab or window. “States are responsible for reviewing cases, verifying the citizenship or immigration status of identified individuals, requesting additional documentation if needed, and taking appropriate actions when necessary, including adjusting coverage or enforcing noncitizen eligibility rules.”
CMS said it would send the first set of reports to states on Tuesday, “with all states receiving a report over the course of a month. We expect states to take quick action and will monitor progress on a monthly basis.”
“Medicaid is a lifeline for vulnerable Americans — and I will protect it from abuse,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the release. “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.”
Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), a reproductive rights organization, panned Tuesday’s announcement. “As a physician, I know that even if the rule changes are ultimately challenged by the critical work of advocates and litigators, any action like this will have a chilling effect on people presenting for basic lifesaving healthcare,” Jamila Perritt, MD, an ob/gyn in Washington who is PRH’s president and CEO, wrote in an email to MedPage Today.
“All people, regardless of immigration status, deserve access to quality healthcare and access to health benefits like Medicaid,” Perritt said. “Access to resources, care, and support services are basic human rights. The fear tactics, xenophobic rhetoric, and harassment that the Trump administration is engaging in show us that they will stop at nothing to deny people access to the healthcare they need.”
Tuesday’s announcement is the second one the administration has made recently involving immigrants and the Medicaid program. Last month, CMS and the Department of Homeland Security agreedopens in a new tab or window that CMS would hand over Medicaid enrollees’ personal information — including home addresses and ethnicities — to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the purpose of tracking down potential illegal immigrants. However, that agreement was struck down earlier this monthopens in a new tab or window by a federal court, with Judge Vince Chhabria writing that “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.”
Also last month, the administration announced a plan to purge duplicate enrolleesopens in a new tab or window in Medicaid, CHIP, and Affordable Care Act insurance exchange plans. In its announcement, HHS said a recent analysis of 2024 enrollment data found that there were approximately 2.8 million people “either enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program in multiple states or simultaneously enrolled in both Medicaid/CHIP and a subsidized Affordable Care Act exchange plan.”
Getting rid of these duplicate enrollments would save the federal government an estimated $14 billion annually, HHS said, noting that “CMS will work with states to prevent individuals from losing coverage inappropriately.”
Duplicate enrollment can occur for various reasons, America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group for health insurers, said in a March blog postopens in a new tab or window. “Complex individual circumstances can result in multiple residence changes for some beneficiaries,” the post said. “For example, people experiencing chronic homelessness or in unstable housing situations, seasonal employees, people with frequent job changes, and/or people suffering from illnesses may relocate more often, resulting in lags to updated data.”
Earlier last month, on July 4, President Trump signed the reconciliation bill into law; that measure will result in an estimated 10 million peopleopens in a new tab or window losing their health insurance, largely due to Medicaid work requirements, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
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