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Spending cuts, immigration, and Medicaid are on the prime of the Washington agenda. That local weather gives fertile floor for misinformation and myths to multiply on social networks. Some of 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 individuals and people with disabilities, “do not work” and exaggerations of the share of individuals with Medicaid who’re Latinos.
The U.S. House voted narrowly on Feb. 25 in favor of a budget blueprint that would result in Medicaid cuts of as much as $880 billion over a decade.
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are a part of the nationwide security web, overlaying about 80 million people. Medicaid enrollment grew beneath the Affordable Care Act and after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic however then began falling throughout the remaining two years of the Biden administration.
Immigrants’ impression on the nation’s well being care system may 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 Health News, 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 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 Health News.
“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 Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy and Economics Research, a part of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.
Neither the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health nor the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services responded to requests for remark.
2. Are Latinos the biggest group enrolled in Medicaid?
No. White people who find themselves not Hispanic characterize the largest 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, in keeping with a CMS document.
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 information evaluation director on the well being coverage crew on the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a analysis group.
In a Feb. 18 blog post, 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.”
Although Latinos are usually not 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 entire U.S. inhabitants.
Approximately 31% of the Latino population is enrolled in Medicaid, partly as a result of employed Latinos usually have jobs that don’t provide reasonably priced insurance coverage.
Eligibility for Medicaid is predicated on components resembling revenue, age, and being pregnant or incapacity standing, and it varies from state to state, mentioned Kelly Whitener, affiliate professor of apply on the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
“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. Under 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 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 Treatment 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 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?
Experts say there is no such thing as 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.
People who use long-term Medicaid assist providers represent 6% of the entire variety of individuals in this system.
Many beneficiaries are in this system briefly, 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, resembling inside a yr.
5. Are Latinos on Medicaid the group that makes use of medical providers essentially the most?
Latinos don’t use considerably extra Medicaid providers than others, specialists say. Latinos obtain preventive providers (resembling mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies), primary care and psychological well being care lower than different teams, in keeping with paperwork from CMS and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a nonpartisan group that gives coverage and information 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 a much bigger share of the general inhabitants.
While Latinos represent 28% of all Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, they account for 37% of beneficiaries with restricted advantages that cowl solely particular providers.
“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 School of Public Health and the school analysis director on the college’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.
Latino individuals additionally keep away from utilizing providers out of worry 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 supposed to make it tougher for immigrants who use Medicaid or welfare packages to acquire inexperienced playing cards or develop into 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.
Paula Andalo:
[email protected],
@paula_andalo
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