Justice in Aging condemns the Trump administration’s disclosure of Medicaid enrollees’ personal information to immigration enforcement officials. According to news reports, last week the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services disregarded federal Medicaid officials and provided personal data about millions of non-citizen Medicaid enrollees to the Department of Homeland Security. This action violates the fundamental right to privacy and endangers the lives of older immigrants and all immigrants who rely on Medicaid.
Using this information to terrorize immigrants and their families—which include older adults and U.S. citizen children—will bring both immediate and lasting harms to our communities. Older immigrants will be afraid to access health care and other supports that helps them meet their basic needs because actions like these destroy the hard-earned trust that communities hold in our government.
Additionally, they violate the longstanding protection against the sharing of sensitive health data with immigration officials and are part of an anti-immigrant agenda that attacks older immigrants’ rights and access to health care, housing, and economic security. Ultimately, these actions will hurt the health and well-being of all of us.
Everyone deserves to trust that the personal information they provide to access health care and other services will be kept confidential. We call on the Trump administration to immediately halt any further sharing or use of Medicaid or other inappropriately obtained data by immigration officials.
