Spending cuts, immigration, and Medicaid are on the high of the Washington agenda. That local weather gives fertile floor for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. Among the commonest are these surrounding immigrants, Latinos, and Medicaid.
These claims embody 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 finances 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 internet, protecting about 80 million folks. Medicaid enrollment grew beneath the Reasonably priced Care Act and after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic however then began falling throughout the ultimate two years of the Biden administration.
Immigrants’ influence 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 12 months that “we’re bankrupting a variety of 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 specialists within the discipline.
1. Do Latinos who obtain Medicaid work?
Most do. A KFF evaluation of Medicaid information 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 aren’t working, although we all know from a variety of information that many individuals work however don’t have entry to reasonably priced 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 characterize the most important 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 keeping with a CMS doc.
Latinos’ share of whole Medicaid enrollment “has remained pretty secure for a few years — hovering between 26 and 30% since no less than 2008,” mentioned Gideon Lukens, analysis and information evaluation director on the well being coverage staff on the left-leaning Heart on Funds and Coverage Priorities, a analysis group.
In a Feb. 18 weblog submit, Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote: “The largest fantasy within the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens — which incorporates unlawful immigrants and people lawfully current on varied short-term visas and inexperienced playing cards — disproportionately eat welfare. That isn’t the case.” They included Medicaid within the time period “welfare.”
Though Latinos will not be the most important group in Medicaid, they’re the demographic group with the best proportion 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 typically have jobs that don’t provide reasonably priced insurance coverage.
Eligibility for Medicaid relies on components akin 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 College of Public Coverage.
“Medicaid eligibility just isn’t based mostly 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 solely 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 components, don’t usually qualify for this system.
Emergency Medicaid started in 1986 beneath the Emergency Medical Remedy 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 supposed for Americans who want it most — seniors, youngsters, pregnant girls, and the disabled,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) mentioned on social media. “However liberal states are discovering methods to sport the system and make taxpayers cowl healthcare for unlawful immigrants.”
4. Do Latinos keep on Medicaid for many years?
Consultants say there isn’t a 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 as a result of a incapacity and who reside with a medical scenario that doesn’t change,” Tolbert mentioned.
Individuals who use long-term Medicaid help companies characterize 6% of the full variety of folks in this system.
Many beneficiaries are in this system quickly, McBride mentioned.
“Some research point out that as many as half of the folks on Medicaid churn off of Medicaid inside a brief time frame,” he mentioned, akin to inside a 12 months.
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, specialists say. Latinos obtain preventive companies (akin to mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies), main care and psychological well being care lower than different teams, in keeping with paperwork from CMS and the Medicaid and CHIP Fee and Entry Fee, a nonpartisan group that gives coverage and information evaluation.
Latinos do account for a disproportionate share of Medicaid labor and supply companies. Latino households and white households every characterize about 35% of Medicaid births, though white folks make up an even bigger share of the general inhabitants.
Whereas Latinos characterize 28% of all Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, they account for 37% of beneficiaries with restricted advantages that cowl solely particular companies.
“They really use well being care companies lower than different teams, due to systemic limitations akin to restricted English proficiency and issue navigating the system,” mentioned Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding College of Public Well being and the school analysis director on the college’s Latino Coverage and Politics Institute.
Latino folks additionally keep away from utilizing companies 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 beneath 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 change into U.S. residents.
“The chilling impact of public cost persists, however current orders akin to mass deportation or the elimination of birthright citizenship have generated their very own chilling results,” Vargas Bustamante added.
