Spending cuts, immigration, and Medicaid are on the prime of the Washington agenda. That local weather offers fertile floor for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. A few 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 budget blueprint that might result in Medicaid cuts of as much as $880 billion over a decade.
Medicaid and the Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Program are a part of the nationwide security internet, overlaying about 80 million people. Medicaid enrollment grew beneath 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 will be overstated in heated political rhetoric. Now-Vice President JD Vance mentioned on the marketing campaign path final 12 months that “we’re bankrupting numerous hospitals by forcing these hospitals to offer take care of individuals who don’t have the authorized proper to be in our nation.” PolitiFact rated that assertion “False.”
KFF Health News, in partnership with Factchequeado, compiled 5 myths circulating on social media and analyzed them with consultants within the area.
1. Do Latinos who obtain Medicaid work?
Most do. A KFF evaluation of Medicaid knowledge discovered that nearly 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 data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
“For a lot of low-income individuals, the parable is that they aren’t 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 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 most important 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 response to a CMS document.
Latinos’ share of complete Medicaid enrollment “has remained pretty steady for a few years — hovering between 26 and 30% since at the very least 2008,” mentioned Gideon Lukens, analysis and knowledge evaluation director on the well being coverage workforce on the left-leaning Heart on Price range and Coverage Priorities, a analysis group.
In a Feb. 18 blog post, Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote: “The most important fable within the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens — which incorporates unlawful immigrants and people lawfully current on varied momentary visas and inexperienced playing cards — disproportionately eat welfare. That’s not 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 whole U.S. inhabitants.
Roughly 31% of the Latino population 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 corresponding 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 Youngsters and Households at Georgetown College’s McCourt College of Public Coverage.
“Medicaid eligibility will not be primarily based on race or ethnicity,” Whitener mentioned.
3. Do most Latinos residing within the nation with out authorized permission use Medicaid?
No. Beneath federal legislation, immigrants missing authorized standing are not eligible for federal Medicaid benefits.
As of January, 14 states and the District of Columbia had used their very own funds to expand coverage to kids 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 beneath the Emergency Medical Remedy and Labor Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
In 2023, Emergency Medicaid accounted for 0.4% of total 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, kids, pregnant girls, 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?
Consultants say there isn’t any evaluation by race or ethnicity of the size of time individuals use this system.
“The individuals who keep on Medicaid the longest are individuals who have Medicaid as a consequence of a incapacity and who dwell with a medical scenario that doesn’t change,” Tolbert mentioned.
Individuals who use long-term Medicaid help providers represent 6% of the whole variety of individuals in this system.
Many beneficiaries are in this system quickly, McBride mentioned.
“Some research point out that as many as half of the individuals on Medicaid churn off of Medicaid inside a brief time frame,” he mentioned, corresponding to inside a 12 months.
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 (corresponding to mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies), primary care and psychological well being care lower than different teams, in response to paperwork from CMS and the Medicaid and CHIP Fee and Entry Fee, a nonpartisan group that gives coverage and knowledge evaluation.
Latinos do account for a disproportionate share of Medicaid labor and delivery providers. Latino households and white households every characterize about 35% of Medicaid births, though white individuals make up an even bigger share of the general inhabitants.
Whereas Latinos represent 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 limitations corresponding 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 individuals additionally keep away from utilizing providers 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 beneath President Joe Biden. The coverage was meant to make it more durable for immigrants who use Medicaid or welfare applications to acquire inexperienced playing cards or turn into U.S. residents.
“The chilling impact of public cost persists, however current orders corresponding to mass deportation or the elimination of birthright citizenship have generated their very own chilling results,” Vargas Bustamante added.
