Ice is unprecedented access to Medicaid data
According to the Wired Information Exchange Agreement, immigration and customs officials access personal data of nearly 80 million people in Medicaid.
The agreement was signed by CMS officials on Tuesday and was first reported by AP News, entitled “Information Exchange Agreement between Medica and Medicaid and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to disclose identity and location information”.
According to the agreement, ICE authorities receive system credentials for a center for the Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) service center containing sensitive medical information, including accurate records of diagnosis and methods. The language in the agreement says it allows the ICE to access personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, IP address, bank data and social security numbers. (Later in this agreement, what Ice is allowed to access is different, and only identifies “medicaid recipients and their sex, ethnicity and race, but eliminate any IP or banking information.) The agreement is set to take two months. While this document dated 9 July, it is only effective since both sides sign it, indicating a 60 -day crater from 15 July to September 15.
The move comes as President Donald Trump’s government has continued to expand its migration suppression. The government was deported for the deportation of 3,000 people a day – four times more than in fiscal year 2024. Its plans to do this apparently include vacuuming data from all over the government. The Wired had previously reported that the so -called government efficiency (DOGE) and DHS were working on a main database and drew data from all over DHS and other agencies to monitor and exile immigrants.
Medicaid, state and federal health care coverage is available to the poorest country only for some non -citizens, including refugees and asylum seekers, survivors of human trafficking and permanent residents. Some states, such as New York, offer medicaid coverage for children and pregnant people, regardless of their migration. States report their medicaid expenses and data to the federal government, which refunds them for some costs.
“This has not been working on immigration even for five years,” says John Sandog, CEO of ICE under the administration of President Barack Obama. “You want to watch out for a possible frost effect that people who may apply for benefits and qualify for benefits – or seek urgency medical care – do not do this because they are concerned about the information they provide in the hospital can turn them into immigration action.”
Spokesperson tells Wired this is not the government’s concern now. “Under the leadership of the doctor [Mehmet] OZ, CMS is aggressively suppressing countries that may exploit the federal budget to subsidize illegal immigrants, “Andrew Nixon, Director of Communications at the Ministry of Health and Human Services (HHS), says we are not only protecting US taxpayers.
