Sacramento, CA – In response to the Trump Administration’s move to provide deportation officials with the personal data of Medicaid enrollees, health care provider groups across California, representing millions of patients, have called for an immediate stop to the action. 

“The Trump Administration’s reckless action to share personal information about Medicaid enrollees with the Department of Homeland Security puts individuals and families in harm’s way,” said Shannon Udovic-Constant, M.D., President of the California Medical Association. “These unprecedented actions violate the longstanding commitment by the federal government not to use health care enrollment data to target individuals for deportation or other actions. We strongly support access to health care for all and are deeply disturbed to learn that the federal government is no longer protecting patient privacy and is misusing Medicaid data in ways that will make people less safe and less likely to seek medically necessary health care.”

The action comes as provider groups are working together to protect access to care in California’s Medicaid (Medi-Cal) program. 

“Protecting the personal and health information of patients is a long-standing cornerstone of our health care system, and for good reason—patient privacy is essential to building the trust that makes open and effective care possible. Sharing any private patient data for law enforcement purposes is a dangerous and reckless breach of that trust that will permanently damage the sacred trust between health care providers and all patients,” said Francisco Silva, President and CEO of the California Primary Care Association Advocates, representing more than 2,300 community health centers and clinics across California, which serve roughly 8 million Medi-Cal patients. “This action not only threatens access to care for patients, but it also jeopardizes public health by weaponizing patient data and deterring entire communities from seeking timely medical attention, placing all communities at greater risk.

“As the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans work to decimate Medicaid and defund Planned Parenthood, all to strip health care access from millions, this is yet another authoritarian attempt to disenfranchise the most vulnerable among us, targeting immigrants who rely on Medicaid to access health care,” said Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. “With more than 80% of the Planned Parenthood patient population depending on public programs including Medi-cal, the Planned Parenthood affiliates in California strongly condemn this dangerous and reckless move, which will further harm and instill fear in vulnerable patients. Using our country’s health care system to target immigrants is unconscionable and unravels the very basis that our democracy was built on.”

Nearly one third of California patients rely on Medi-Cal for access to care, including primary care, specialty care, prenatal care, urgent care, mental and behavioral health care, telehealth, in-home visits, chronic illness management, pharmacy services, dental services, chiropractic services, optometry care and more.