California defends health privacy for millions as legal battle over data continues with the federal government
Sacramento, California – California Attorney General Rob Bonta has won a big legal battle to safeguard the privacy of the millions of people who are enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program. A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction that stops the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from utilizing Medicaid data to enforce immigration laws. The decision also stops the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from giving this information to immigration officials.
California and a group of other states filed a lawsuit on July 1 against a program that started under the Trump Administration. That policy let DHS see private Medicaid information without the right protections or thought about what might happen. The group said that the decision broke the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits arbitrary and capricious rulemaking.
Attorney General Bonta was happy with the decision because it restores important protections for Medicaid patients. He said that the Trump Administration’s attempt to utilize healthcare data for immigration purposes scared and confused people, which made many immigrant families not sign up for or use services they were legally entitled to.
“Today’s preliminary injunction rightfully blocks any sharing of California’s Medicaid data for immigration enforcement for now — and ensures any of the data that’s already been shared is not being used for immigration enforcement purposes. As the President continues to overstep his authority in his inhumane anti-immigrant crusade, this is a clear reminder that he remains bound by the law,” Bonta said.
The lawsuit said that letting federal immigration officials examine Medicaid data would scare noncitizens away from getting medical attention. This would then put the responsibility for nationally required emergency care on states and safety-net hospitals. The court agreed with the states and said that what the federal government did was probably illegal and will cause problems for state healthcare systems.
More than 78 million individuals in the US use Medicaid, which was set up in 1965. This includes children, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and families with low incomes. The Medi-Cal program in California covers one in three people, including more than two million people who are not citizens. The state has long promised that everyone, no matter their immigration status, will be able to get health care. When federal rules don’t go far enough, the state often uses its own money to make sure everyone is covered.
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The injunction will be in place until the federal government either does a proper review that follows the law or the case is over. For now, California and the coalition of states, together with more than a dozen attorneys general from throughout the country, have gained a stay on a regulation they say hurts both patient trust and access to healthcare.
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This decision highlights the larger fight over how to use personal data in immigration enforcement and how to balance federal power with state healthcare duties. For millions of people in California, it means that their health information can’t be used to control immigration, which is a good thing.
A copy of the preliminary injunction order is available here.
