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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has once again joined a coalition of 19 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration, this time over its sharing of immigrant health data with federal immigration enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
The suit, announced Tuesday, seeks to stop federal immigration officials from securing more health documentation or using already obtained Medicaid records of millions nationwide to target enrollees for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
The attorneys general said the data transfer was not only illegal, but could have a chilling effect on noncitizens and their citizen loved ones enrolling into state healthcare programs they otherwise qualify for due to fear of deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision by the Trump administration will likely have a devastating effect on Illinois\u2019 safety-net hospitals and community-based health care providers, and a chilling effect on the most vulnerable populations\u2019 willingness to enroll in Medicaid programs for which they are legally eligible,\u201d Raoul said. \u201cI will continue to stand with other state attorneys general to use all tools at our disposal to fight back against continued unlawful orders from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also part of the case are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.<\/p>\n
Last month the Department of Health and Human Services transferred states\u2019 Medicaid data files, containing the personal health records of millions, to the Department of Homeland Security \u201cto ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dataset included the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C., all of which allow non-U. S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n
U.S. Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon previously said the data sharing was legal but declined to answer questions about why the data was shared with DHS and how it would be used.<\/p>\n
The case is the latest of more than 20 legal challenges<\/a> to Trump administration actions that Illinois has joined, including suits over triggers that can make semiautomatic rifles fire faster<\/a>, attempts to change election law<\/a> and cuts to public health<\/a> and medical research funding<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n The move is yet another that could force people off Medicaid, as Trump\u2019s large domestic policy bill being considered in Congress includes $1.2 trillion in cuts to the medical program and food stamps<\/a> \u2014 making states pay between 5% and 25% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit costs.<\/p>\n That would place a heavy budgetary cost onto Illinois that could force lawmakers to cut benefits, or the number of recipients \u2014 currently more than 1.8 million in Illinois who received an average of $157 per person per month through SNAP benefits alone in 2022, three quarters of whom were at or below the poverty line.<\/p>\n Contributing: AP, Tina Sfondeles, Mitchell Armentrout<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n