Final August, as a part of the federal authorities’s crackdown on folks within the nation illegally, the Trump administration despatched states the names of lots of of hundreds of Medicaid enrollees with orders to find out whether or not they have been ineligible based mostly on immigration standing.
However seven months later, findings from 5 states shared with KFF Well being Information present that the evaluations have uncovered little proof of a widespread downside.
Solely U.S. residents and a few lawfully current immigrants are eligible for Medicaid, which covers well being care prices for folks with low incomes and disabilities, and the intently associated Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program. Each applications are administered by states.
Spokespeople from Pennsylvania’s and Colorado’s Medicaid companies mentioned, as of March, the states had discovered nobody who wanted to be terminated from Medicaid. That was after checking a mixed 79,000 names.
Texas has reviewed information of greater than 28,000 Medicaid enrollees on the Trump administration’s request and terminated protection for 77 of them, in keeping with Jennifer Ruffcorn, a spokesperson for the Texas Division of Human Companies.
Ohio has checked 65,000 Medicaid enrollees, of which 260 folks have been disenrolled from this system, mentioned Stephanie O’Grady, a spokesperson for the Ohio Division of Medicaid.
In Utah, 42 of the 8,000 enrollees recognized by the Trump administration had their Medicaid protection terminated, mentioned Becky Wickstrom, a spokesperson for the state’s Division of Workforce Companies.
In asserting the evaluations, Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned: “We’re tightening oversight of enrollment to safeguard taxpayer {dollars} and assure that these very important applications serve solely those that are actually eligible beneath the legislation.”
Leonardo Cuello, a analysis professor at Georgetown College’s Heart for Kids and Households, mentioned the evaluations ordered by the federal Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies have been unneeded as a result of states examine immigration standing when folks enroll.
“It’s completely predictable that every one of those burdensome evaluations that the federal authorities is forcing upon states would yield no pay grime,” Cuello mentioned. “The states had already achieved the evaluations as soon as, and CMS was simply making them reverify the identical info they’d already checked. Making states undergo the identical bureaucratic course of twice is extremely wasteful and inefficient.”
CMS spokesperson Chris Krepich mentioned in an announcement to KFF Well being Information that the continuing checks are verifying eligibility “for sure enrollees whose standing couldn’t be confirmed via federal knowledge sources.”
“CMS offers states with common experiences for follow-up overview, and states are answerable for independently verifying eligibility and taking acceptable motion per federal necessities,” he mentioned.
However the findings shared with KFF Well being Information additionally counsel that lots of the enrollees whose eligibility the Trump administration mentioned it couldn’t affirm are certainly U.S. residents. O’Grady mentioned Ohio discovered that, of the 65,000 names referred by the federal authorities, the state already had info on 53,000 confirming them as residents and an extra 11,000 displaying acceptable immigration standing for Medicaid.
Caseworkers then labored on the remaining 1,000 names to overview their info or attain out for extra particulars, she mentioned.
CMS didn’t reply questions in regards to the findings from the states sampled by KFF Well being Information or present details about responses it obtained from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, which have been instructed to carry out verification checks.
The company additionally didn’t reply to a query about whether or not it’s forwarding the names of these whose Medicaid protection was terminated to federal immigration officers.
In June, advisers to Kennedy ordered CMS to share details about Medicaid enrollees with the Division of Homeland Safety, prompting a lawsuit by some states alarmed that the administration would use the knowledge for its deportation marketing campaign towards residents dwelling within the U.S. with out authorization.
A federal choose dominated in December that Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff might entry info solely about folks within the nation unlawfully within the Medicaid databases of the states that sued.
CMS continues to ship states lists of names not less than each few months, although state officers say the numbers have declined for the reason that first batch final summer season.
Folks with out authorized standing are ineligible for federally funded well being protection, together with Medicaid, Medicare, and plans via the Inexpensive Care Act marketplaces. Medicaid does reimburse hospitals for offering emergency care to folks with out authorized standing in the event that they meet revenue and different program necessities.
Seven states and the District of Columbia present well being protection no matter immigration standing, funding the applications with their very own cash.
In March 2025, CMS started monetary evaluations of these applications. “CMS has recognized over $1.8 billion in federal funds which might be being recouped via voluntary returns and deferrals of future federal Medicaid funds,” Krepich mentioned. He didn’t reply how a lot has been collected thus far or from which states.
Medicaid’s general spending topped $900 billion in fiscal 12 months 2024.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working applications at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Study extra about KFF.
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