Spending cuts, immigration, and Medicaid are on the prime of the Washington agenda. That local weather supplies fertile floor for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. Among the commonest are these surrounding immigrants, Latinos, and Medicaid.
These claims embrace assertions that Latinos who use Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income folks and people with disabilities, “don’t work” and exaggerations of the share of individuals with Medicaid who’re Latinos.
The U.S. Home voted narrowly on Feb. 25 in favor of a price range blueprint that might result in Medicaid cuts of as much as $880 billion over a decade.
Medicaid and the Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program are a part of the nationwide security web, overlaying about 80 million folks. Medicaid enrollment grew underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act and after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic however then began falling in the course of the remaining two years of the Biden administration.
Immigrants’ affect on the nation’s well being care system might be overstated in heated political rhetoric. Now-Vice President JD Vance mentioned on the marketing campaign path final yr that “we’re bankrupting numerous hospitals by forcing these hospitals to supply look after individuals who don’t have the authorized proper to be in our nation.” PolitiFact rated that assertion “False.”
KFF Well being Information, in partnership with Factchequeado, compiled 5 myths circulating on social media and analyzed them with consultants within the discipline.
1. Do Latinos who obtain Medicaid work?
Most do. A KFF evaluation of Medicaid knowledge discovered that just about 67% of Latinos on Medicaid work, “which is the next share of Medicaid adults who’re working in comparison with different racial and ethnic teams,” mentioned Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. KFF is a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
“For a lot of low-income folks, the parable is that they don’t seem to be working, regardless that we all know from numerous knowledge that many individuals work however don’t have entry to inexpensive employer-sponsored insurance coverage,” mentioned Timothy McBride, co-director on the Heart for Advancing Well being Providers, Coverage and Economics Analysis, a part of the Institute for Public Well being at Washington College in St. Louis.
Neither the Division of Well being and Human Providers Workplace of Minority Well being nor the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers responded to requests for remark.
2. Are Latinos the biggest group enrolled in Medicaid?
No. White people who find themselves not Hispanic symbolize the most important demographic group in Medicaid and CHIP. The packages’ enrollment is 42% non-Hispanic white, 28% Latinos, and 18% non-Hispanic Black, with small percentages of different minorities, based on a CMS doc.
Latinos’ share of complete Medicaid enrollment “has remained pretty secure for a few years — hovering between 26 and 30% since not less than 2008,” mentioned Gideon Lukens, analysis and knowledge evaluation director on the well being coverage group on the left-leaning Heart on Finances and Coverage Priorities, a analysis group.
In a Feb. 18 weblog publish, Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote: “The most important delusion within the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens — which incorporates unlawful immigrants and people lawfully current on varied non permanent visas and inexperienced playing cards — disproportionately eat welfare. That isn’t the case.” They included Medicaid within the time period “welfare.”
Though Latinos should not the most important group in Medicaid, they’re the demographic group with the best share of individuals receiving Medicaid. There are about 65.2 million Hispanics within the nation, representing 19.5% of the full U.S. inhabitants.
Roughly 31% of the Latino inhabitants is enrolled in Medicaid, partially as a result of employed Latinos usually have jobs that don’t supply inexpensive insurance coverage.
Eligibility for Medicaid is predicated on elements equivalent to earnings, age, and being pregnant or incapacity standing, and it varies from state to state, mentioned Kelly Whitener, affiliate professor of apply on the Heart for Kids and Households at Georgetown College’s McCourt College of Public Coverage.
“Medicaid eligibility isn’t primarily based on race or ethnicity,” Whitener mentioned.
3. Do most Latinos dwelling within the nation with out authorized permission use Medicaid?
No. Beneath federal regulation, immigrants missing authorized standing are not eligible for federal Medicaid advantages.
As of January, 14 states and the District of Columbia had used their very own funds to broaden protection to youngsters within the nation with out regard to immigration standing. Of these, seven states and D.C. expanded protection to some adults no matter immigration standing.
The price of offering well being care to those beneficiaries is roofed totally by the states. The federal authorities doesn’t put up a penny.
The federal authorities does pay for Emergency Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals for medical emergencies for individuals who, due to their immigration standing or different elements, don’t usually qualify for this system.
Emergency Medicaid started in 1986 underneath the Emergency Medical Remedy and Labor Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
In 2023, Emergency Medicaid accounted for 0.4% of complete Medicaid spending.
Some conservative lawmakers say immigrants within the nation illegally mustn’t get any Medicaid advantages.
“Medicaid is supposed for Americans who want it most — seniors, youngsters, pregnant ladies, and the disabled,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) mentioned on social media. “However liberal states are discovering methods to recreation the system and make taxpayers cowl healthcare for unlawful immigrants.”
4. Do Latinos keep on Medicaid for many years?
Specialists say there isn’t any evaluation by race or ethnicity of the size of time folks use this system.
“The individuals who keep on Medicaid the longest are individuals who have Medicaid because of a incapacity and who dwell with a medical state of affairs that doesn’t change,” Tolbert mentioned.
Individuals who use long-term Medicaid help providers symbolize 6% of the full variety of folks in this system.
Many beneficiaries are in this system briefly, McBride mentioned.
“Some research point out that as many as half of the folks on Medicaid churn off of Medicaid inside a brief time period,” he mentioned, equivalent to inside a yr.
5. Are Latinos on Medicaid the group that makes use of medical providers probably the most?
Latinos don’t use considerably extra Medicaid providers than others, consultants say. Latinos obtain preventive providers (equivalent to mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies), main care and psychological well being care lower than different teams, based on paperwork from CMS and the Medicaid and CHIP Cost and Entry Fee, a nonpartisan group that gives coverage and knowledge evaluation.
Latinos do account for a disproportionate share of Medicaid labor and supply providers. Latino households and white households every symbolize about 35% of Medicaid births, though white folks make up an even bigger share of the general inhabitants.
Whereas Latinos symbolize 28% of all Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, they account for 37% of beneficiaries with restricted advantages that cowl solely particular providers.
“They really use well being care providers lower than different teams, due to systemic obstacles equivalent to restricted English proficiency and problem navigating the system,” mentioned Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding College of Public Well being and the college analysis director on the college’s Latino Coverage and Politics Institute.
Latino folks additionally keep away from utilizing providers out of worry of the “public cost” rule and different insurance policies, Vargas Bustamante mentioned. President Donald Trump expanded the general public cost coverage and strongly enforced it throughout his first time period, although it was softened underneath President Joe Biden. The coverage was meant to make it more durable for immigrants who use Medicaid or welfare packages to acquire inexperienced playing cards or turn out to be U.S. residents.
“The chilling impact of public cost persists, however current orders equivalent to mass deportation or the elimination of birthright citizenship have generated their very own chilling results,” Vargas Bustamante added.
