U.S. poised to boot legal immigrants from Medicaid, including refugees and sex-trafficking victims — SkimNews
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- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will strip Medicaid coverage from many lawfully present immigrants starting in October — including refugees, asylees, sex-trafficking victims, and interpreters who aided U.S. service members in Afghanistan — while green card holders, people under 19, and immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and certain Pacific Island countries remain exempt.
- More than 281,000 immigrants across nine states and DC are expected to lose Medicaid coverage in October, with Florida alone identifying nearly 177,000; Arizona projects roughly 28,000, New Jersey 15,000–25,000, North Carolina about 29,000, and Washington around 11,000.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law's Medicaid changes will leave roughly 100,000 more immigrants uninsured by 2034, with about 1 million more losing ACA marketplace subsidies and another 100,000 losing Medicare starting in January.
- California is spending $365 million in state funds to keep an estimated 148,000 affected immigrants covered through July 2027, while New York and Pennsylvania are running similar state-funded backup programs for residents cut off by the federal law.
- The CBO waited a month after Congress passed the bill to publish its estimates on the law's noncitizen Medicaid impact — a gap that meant lawmakers debated and signed the legislation without seeing those numbers, even as most public attention has focused on work requirements projected to add roughly 5 million uninsured Americans by 2034.
- Ahin, a 25-year-old Syrian refugee in New Jersey who needed intestinal surgery shortly after arriving in October 2024, applied for permanent residency but is still waiting — her resettlement advocate says she should already have her green card, but today's application backlog exceeds a year, leaving her among those set to lose coverage.
- Trump has framed the health coverage cuts as part of a broader strategy to "send a message that immigrants are not welcome," while his White House released a misleading May 2025 claim that the law would strip Medicaid from unauthorized immigrants — who were never eligible for the federally funded program to begin with.
Why it matters: More than 281,000 lawfully present immigrants in nine states lose Medicaid coverage starting in October, with the CBO projecting 100,000 more uninsured by 2034 — and the affected include interpreters who aided U.S. troops and trafficking victims. California alone is spending $365 million in state funds to keep affected residents covered, shifting the fiscal burden from federal to state budgets.
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