New restrictions removed Medicaid coverage for some legal immigrants, including refugees and victims of human trafficking, under broader federal changes to the health insurance program that is expected to force millions of people to give up their coverage.
The change that took effect Oct. 1 removed from Medicaid what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people who have immigrated legally to the United States, many of whom are working and paying taxes, in recent years. Trump administration policies to target foreigners.
The move is part of sweeping changes to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s 2025 plan. tax reduction and political lawmany of which are expected to come into effect early next year. Changes to Medicaid are expected to result in fewer than 7.5 million people with health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2025 estimate.
Advocates say that without Medicaid, people won’t be able to afford private insurance and will delay care or end up in emergency rooms, adding pressure to a strained health care system. For immigrants, the cuts could be felt more acutely, compounding the effects of efforts by other administrations to restrict their access to public assistance under a broader crackdown on immigration.
“This is about telling all immigrants in the United States that they are not welcome here and they should leave,” said Ben D’Avanzo, senior strategist at the National Immigration Law Center, which filed a lawsuit against the Republican administration over its immigration agenda.
Refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and domestic violence are among those who have lost coverage. Green card holders were not affected.
Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that “immigrants must be able to support themselves without having to resort to overburdened benefit programs paid for by hard-working American taxpayers.”
D’Avanzo said many people who lost coverage likely won’t realize until they need medical attention. But for some, the change was felt immediately.
Decreased supplies of life-saving medicines
In Tucson, Arizona, María Chacon has been caring for her son Jesus for nearly five years since a car accident at age 17 left him unable to breathe on his own. He requires a ventilator, feeding tube and daily medications, and must be turned once every two hours to prevent sores from forming. Chacon said he sometimes opens his eyes.
The family is originally from Mexico and entered the United States on a T visa, offered to victims of human trafficking, in 2018.
Chacon said Medicaid helped cover nearly $25,000 a month for her son’s care, which includes a small stipend for her and her husband as compensation for their role as long-term caregivers. She said doctors explained to her that even if they both worked 24 hours a day, they would not be able to cover the cost of her care.
“Since that day, I haven’t been able to sleep. We can’t eat or anything. We wonder what we’re going to do?” said Chacon.
Jesus takes medication that Chacon says costs $7,000 a month. The supply runs out by mid-October. Without coverage, she doesn’t know how her son will survive.
Chacon discovered just days before the cuts that she was losing care. She called state Medicaid offices to appeal. Even if she is in the process of obtaining a green card, Medicaid coverage will not take effect until five years after she is approved.
Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-wing think tank that seeks to reduce immigration, said the administration is “trying to nibble at the edges” with the Oct. 1 budget cuts, finding piecemeal ways to curb immigration to the United States.
Camarota believes the government should screen legal immigrants based on their earning potential and education, thereby reducing the number of people likely to rely on public benefits once they cross the border.
“You need immigrants who probably won’t need welfare,” he said, or people with high levels of education.
The administration recently reinstated a federal rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits that could include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and others.
Chacon believes the cuts to Medicaid coverage are part of the administration’s crackdown on immigrants. She said her son was in no condition to travel.
“I know that’s what he does, but, like my son, I couldn’t go to Mexico,” Chacon said.
Millions more will be cut from Medicaid
Medicaid, jointly funded by states and the federal government, became a political focal point during Trump’s second term. The president has insisted on eliminating what he describes as fraud in the program. In July, the delayed administration more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, claiming there was suspicion of fraud; Critics argued that the move targeted Democratic-led states.
As more people are removed from Medicaid, the federal government is expected to cut program spending by $911 billion, according to KFF, a health care research nonprofit.
In Arizona, officials said 29,000 legal immigrants were removed from Medicaid rolls on Oct. 1. In Florida, estimates are closer to 177,000. Overall, more than 281,000 immigrants from nine states and the District of Columbia are estimated to lose their Medicaid coverage, according to KFF.
As more states implement various coverage restrictions, 7.5 million people are expected to lose coverage by 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.
Without coverage, people will turn to emergency rooms for care. When people delay seeking medical attention, conditions can worsen and become even more expensive to treat.
“Ultimately, it increases the cost for states, because once these people are hospitalized for something that could have been prevented, they can’t go to the doctor because they weren’t insured; they will most likely end up in a hospital in an emergency room,” said Carmen Feliciano, vice president of policy and advocacy at UnidosUS, a Latin American civil rights organization.
UnidosUS partners with community organizations to help provide medical care, but Feliciano said they are already overwhelmed and won’t be able to support the number of people who lose their health coverage in the coming months.
“We won’t have the capacity to serve everyone who needs it,” Feliciano said.
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