Colorado sues federal health agency to stop sharing of Medicaid data with ICE

Colorado and other states sued the federal establishment Tuesday to prevent Medicaid statistics from being used for immigration enforcement In June the Department of Healthcare and Human Services transferred details about people enrolled in Medicaid to the Department of Homeland Safeguard which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement The shared material included names addresses Social Assurance numbers immigration status and information about diagnostic declares made by residents of California Illinois Washington state and the District of Columbia Colorado New York Minnesota and Oregon received requests for similar material At the time the sharing became populace Colorado wouldn t say if whether it would comply The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated in May that it was researching whether states used any federal matching funds to cover undocumented people The agency could cut off funding for undocumented people and recoup any that states had already spent without involving ICE The multistate lawsuit filed in the he U S District Court for the Northern District of California argues that federal law only allows states and the federal regime to share Medicaid enrollees personal material if necessary to run the operation or to identify fraud The administration s actions suggest it is trying to build a database to facilitate deportations Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser explained There s no reason to share this sensitive evidence with immigration or law enforcement agencies We re suing to protect Colorado s Medicaid initiative and the medical and welfare of the people it serves he commented in a announcement HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon disclosed the details sharing was necessary to find waste fraud and systemic abuse of Medicaid Related Articles Senate passes Trump s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill as Vance breaks - tie Colorado school districts brace for K- budget crunch by not filling jobs offering smaller raises Colorado vitality executives brace for layoffs amid loss of federal funding from Trump administration Trump bill s Medicaid provision that s now in limbo could cost Colorado billion States can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood the Supreme Court rules We are not only protecting taxpayer dollars we are restoring credibility to one of America s most of vital programs The American people deserve accountability HHS is delivering it he announced in a announcement Colorado uses state money to cover undocumented children and those who are pregnant or in the postpartum year About people were enrolled in that project as of late June The state also allows a limited number of undocumented people to buy subsidized robustness insurance on the marketplace through its OmniSalud plan All states must cover undocumented people under crisis Medicaid which pays for labor and delivery costs dialysis for people with end-stage kidney infection and care for illnesses and accidents that could cause someone to die or lose a limb The other states involved in the lawsuit include Arizona California Connecticut Delaware Hawaii Illinois Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York Oregon Rhode Island Vermont and Washington Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get wellbeing news sent straight to your inbox