Spending cuts, immigration, and Medicaid are on the high of the Washington agenda. That local weather supplies fertile floor for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. A number of 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 individuals and people with disabilities, “do not work” and exaggerations of the proportion of individuals with Medicaid who’re Latinos.
The U.S. Home voted narrowly on Feb. 25 in favor of a finances blueprint that would 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 internet, masking about 80 million individuals. Medicaid enrollment grew underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act and after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic however then began falling through the last two years of the Biden administration.
Immigrants’ affect on the nation’s well being care system will be overstated in heated political rhetoric. Now-Vice President JD Vance mentioned on the marketing campaign path final yr that “we’re bankrupting a lot of hospitals by forcing these hospitals to provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country.” 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 a higher share of Medicaid adults who are working compared to other racial and ethnic groups,” mentioned Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. KFF is a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
“For many low-income people, the myth is that they are not working, even though we know from a lot of data that many people work but don’t have access to affordable employer-sponsored insurance,” mentioned Timothy McBride, co-director on the Heart for Advancing Well being Companies, 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 Companies Workplace of Minority Well being nor the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies responded to requests for remark.
2. Are Latinos the biggest group enrolled in Medicaid?
No. White people who find themselves not Hispanic symbolize the largest demographic group in Medicaid and CHIP. The applications’ enrollment is 42% non-Hispanic white, 28% Latinos, and 18% non-Hispanic Black, with small percentages of different minorities, in response to a CMS doc.
Latinos’ share of whole Medicaid enrollment “has remained fairly stable for many years — hovering between 26 and 30% since at least 2008,” mentioned Gideon Lukens, analysis and knowledge evaluation director on the well being coverage crew on the left-leaning Heart on Price range and Coverage Priorities, a analysis group.
In a Feb. 18 weblog publish, Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote: “The biggest myth in the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens — which includes illegal immigrants and those lawfully present on various temporary visas and green cards — disproportionately consume welfare. That is not the case.” They included Medicaid within the time period “welfare.”
Though Latinos will not be the largest 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 provide reasonably priced insurance coverage.
Eligibility for Medicaid relies on elements comparable to earnings, age, and being pregnant or incapacity standing, and it varies from state to state, mentioned Kelly Whitener, affiliate professor of follow on the Heart for Kids and Households at Georgetown College’s McCourt Faculty of Public Coverage.
“Medicaid eligibility is not based on race or ethnicity,” Whitener mentioned.
3. Do most Latinos residing 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 develop 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 fully 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 Therapy and Labor Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
In 2023, Emergency Medicaid accounted for 0.4% of whole Medicaid spending.
Some conservative lawmakers say immigrants within the nation illegally shouldn’t get any Medicaid advantages.
“Medicaid is meant for American citizens who need it most — seniors, children, pregnant women, and the disabled,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) mentioned on social media. “But liberal states are finding ways to game the system and make taxpayers cover healthcare for illegal immigrants.”
4. Do Latinos keep on Medicaid for many years?
Specialists say there isn’t a evaluation by race or ethnicity of the size of time individuals use this system.
“The people who stay on Medicaid the longest are people who have Medicaid due to a disability and who live with a medical situation that does not change,” Tolbert mentioned.
Individuals who use long-term Medicaid assist companies symbolize 6% of the full variety of individuals in this system.
Many beneficiaries are in this system quickly, McBride mentioned.
“Some studies indicate that as many as half of the people on Medicaid churn off of Medicaid within a short period of time,” he mentioned, comparable to inside a yr.
5. Are Latinos on Medicaid the group that makes use of medical companies probably the most?
Latinos don’t use considerably extra Medicaid companies than others, consultants say. Latinos obtain preventive companies (comparable to mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies), major care and psychological well being care lower than different teams, in response to 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 companies. Latino households and white households every symbolize about 35% of Medicaid births, though white individuals make up a much 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 companies.
“They actually use health care services less than other groups, because of systemic barriers such as limited English proficiency and difficulty navigating the system,” mentioned Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding Faculty of Public Well being and the school analysis director on the college’s Latino Coverage and Politics Institute.
Latino individuals additionally keep away from utilizing companies out of concern of the “public charge” 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 supposed to make it more durable for immigrants who use Medicaid or welfare applications to acquire inexperienced playing cards or grow to be U.S. residents.
“The chilling effect of public charge persists, but recent orders such as mass deportation or the elimination of birthright citizenship have generated their own chilling effects,” Vargas Bustamante added.
