ILLINOIS (WAND) – Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a coalition of 20 attorneys in filing a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ over its decision to provide unfettered access to health data for individuals to the Department of Homeland Security, which houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
It asks the court to block any new transfer or use of this data for immigration enforcement purposes.
“This decision by the Trump administration will likely have a devastating effect on Illinois’ safety net hospitals and community-based health care providers, and a chilling effect on the most vulnerable populations’ willingness to enroll in Medicaid programs for which they are legally eligible,” Raoul said. “I 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.”
Medicaid was created in 1965 as a source of health insurance for low-income people and underserved populations, including children, pregnant women, those with disabilities, and seniors.
Each state administering Medicaid can develop and administer its own health plans. States must meet threshold federal statutory criteria, but they can create their own plans’ eligibility standards and coverage options.
As of January 2025, 78.4 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program nationwide.
In Illinois, nearly 3.5 million people use Medicaid, CHIP, and other affordable health care programs.
Personal health care data collected about the program’s beneficiaries is confidential and only shared in narrow circumstances to benefit public health and the integrity of the Medicaid program. A certain amount of personal data is routinely shared between the states and federal government for the purposes of administering Medicaid, including verifying eligibility for federal funding.
Policy has historically not allowed the use of Medicaid personal information for immigration enforcement purposes.
On June 13, states learned “through news reports” that HHS had transferred en masse states’ Medicaid data files, containing personal health records representing millions of individuals, to DHS, Raoul said. The government said data was given to DHS to “ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.”
Raoul said, “reports indicated that the federal government plans to create a sweeping database for ‘mass deportations’ and other large-scale immigration enforcement purposes.”
Raoul and the coalition believe the actions will lead noncitizens and their family members to disenroll or refuse to enroll in Medicaid, “for which they are otherwise eligible.”
Raoul said that means states and safety net hospitals will be left to foot the bill for federally-mandated emergency health care services.
Joining Raoul in filing the lawsuit are attorney generals of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
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