Medicaid Immigration Reviews Find Few Ineligible Enrollees

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration are conducting an initiative to identify undocumented Medicaid enrollees to safeguard taxpayer dollars. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ordered states since August to verify the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of participants.

Data from five states indicate the reviews found very few ineligible persons. Pennsylvania and Colorado reported no ineligible individuals after reviewing 79,000 names. Texas terminated 77 out of 28,000 reviewed enrollees, Utah terminated 42 out of 8,000, and Ohio disenrolled 260 out of 65,000. In Ohio, officials found that 64,000 of the names referred by the federal government were already documented as citizens or lawfully present.

Parallel to these reviews, federal authorities began financial audits in March 2025 of state-funded programs that provide coverage regardless of status. These reviews identified $1.8 billion in federal funds to be recouped. While the administration maintains the necessity of these checks, critics argue the process is wasteful because states already verify immigration status during the initial enrollment process.