The administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Mehmet Oz, recently claimed that an audit revealed “more than $1bn of federal taxpayer dollars were being spent on funding Medicaid for illegal immigrants”, but experts say the audits were unrelated to immigration, and that rhetoric like this could make immigrant families – regardless of legal status – afraid to seek necessary medical care.
Leo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families without him “
For example, it is common for states to ask for Federal Reguverbersement for programs that should receive state funds exclusively, such as food on wheels. Cuello explained that these types of announcements are “very common and normal things that happen all the time. States always send claims to CMS, and CMS always reviews them properly.” Reporting from OREGON LIVE and KFF verified that audits are routine.
What’s not normal is for a CMS administrator, like Mehmet Oz, to post about the announcements on social media, Cuello said. In his X Post, OZ claims that the “Democrats are asking to drop working families who are cut off by the government from taking care of federal care for illegal immigrants.”
“The Oz Tweet mixes apples and oranges because it talks about a specific audit, but then tries to put that audit in the context of the broader fight over HR1 [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act] And the affordable care act enhanced the premium tax credits and the closure,” said Cuello.
But, Cuello added, these audits and shutdowns are completely unrelated.
“More importantly, the OZ Tweet repeated an inaccuracy That’s been said many times at this point,” he continued, “which is that the Republicans are pushing a big court act on the care bill for undocumented immigrants for the undocumented care for undocumented immigrants for the undocumented care for the undocumented care for undocumented immigrants immigrants for undocumented immigrants, not undocumented citizens, not undocumented citizens, not undocumented immigrants, not undocumented citizens, not undocumented immigrants, not undocumented citizens, not undocumented immigrants, not the undocumented immigrants, not undocumented citizens.
CMS did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
OZ’s claim that undocumented immigrants cost the country $1bn in unopposed Medicaid coverage is simply not possible, said Nina Yamanis, a professor at the American university.
Yamanis added that he “can’t imagine you can” get on Medicaid while being undocumented. When Medicaid qualification is confirmed, “If a part of the law is not related to the Social Security Number, the State confirms a database from the homeland security, as well as determining specific immigration documents”, he said.
Even if the $1bn figure is true, Cuello said, it’s “about one-tenth of 1% of the trillions of dollars that citizens have cut from Medicaid”.
While the rhetoric in Oz’s post may not be true, it adds to a situation where undocumented immigrants are being exposed and targeted.
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Yamanis said: “This raises a problematic situation.” Regular immigrants cannot sign up for Medicaid until they have completed a five-year waiting period. Now, Yamanis said, he has heard accounts of the law stating that immigrants are avoiding signing up for the newly available Medicaid expirations in North Carolina because they fear being penalized by the system.
“It’s really sad,” he said.
Cuello doubted OZ’s posts about the audits would add too much to this fear: “There is such a deafening noise and fear around the [immigrant] Community this is another straw in the pile. I don’t see this as the straw that breaks the camel’s back. People don’t go to the doctor anymore because they’re afraid to go to the doctor,” he said.
When people are afraid to access care, health outcomes worsen for everyone — not just for immigrant communities, Yamanis said. HIV infections have increased among Latinos over the past 10 years “while other races and ethnicities have remained flat”, he said. That’s because of “Access to HealthcareLanguage barriers, fear of deportation and also the immigration situation”, he added.
“If we have Latinos who do not have access to testing or treatment, there is a problem, because it means that HIV spreads to all the risks that also have access to access to access to health today.
“In the US, gay men and gay men are more at risk for HIV, and if they are immigrants and Latinos, they always come back, and they never want to come back,” they continued to return. “So the threat of eviction is particularly bad for that community.”