In a press conference held at the White House next to the Japanese Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, the president, Donald Trump, said there are “illegal immigrants benefiting from Medicare. We have found many people who were incorporated and many were incorporated from California ”, without offering evidence of their signs.
It is not the first time that Trump makes those statements. During the presidential debate of June 27, 2024, he said that Joe Biden was “destroying Medicare because all these people who are arriving, are helping them with Medicare”, referring to migrants. Also his vice president, JD Vance, has made the accusations.
Medicare is the United States government medical insurance program and was designed for people 65 years of age or older. As stated on its official website requires US nationality or permanent legal residence (the or green card) to be able to accept him.
According to official sources such as Social Security and Medicare pages and the Research Service Congress, undocumented immigrants cannot receive benefits or register in that program.
The Congress Research Service (CRS) says that the Federal Law prohibits unauthorized immigrants “accessing most federal benefits,” with some exceptions, such as the emergency medical. But these exceptions do not apply to regular social security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid.
In other words, immigrants who are illegally in the United States cannot benefit from Medicare, unless they do it through fraud or other crime.
In his statements, Trump did not specify how undocumented people could be incorporated into Medicare, he did not offer details about how they would be included from California.
In California there is a state program, not federal, called Medi-Cal to which undocumented people do access. According to data from the UC Berkeley Labor Center, it is estimated that about one million undocumented Californians have access to medical care through Medi-Cal.
Telemundo News contacted the Centers for the Services of Medicare and Medicaid and the Department of Health and Human Services to request comments on Trump’s accusations but, at the close of this report, he did not receive an answer.
What is the magnitude of social security fraud?
A CNBC analysis indicates that there are two common types of social security fraud related to immigration. The first occurs when people who are not eligible to obtain a social security number steal one or create a false one to work in the United States.
Another modality occurs when people who do not meet the requirements to receive social security or Medicare benefits use a fraudulent social security name or number to claim the payment of benefits. Although incurring this type of fraud is not easy, however, it is possible that some people, including undocumented immigrants, carry it out.
Someone is required to intervene a worker’s social security account and change the information of his bank account to access the money, as explained to CNBC Andrew Biggs, a senior member of the American Enterprise Institute and exciting principal attached deputy of the Social Security Administration.
After the Social Security Administration began allowing people , Inspector of the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, in the House of Representatives in 2023.
The audits found that 33.5 million dollars in benefits for 20,878 beneficiaries were redirected through unauthorized direct deposit changes between January 2013 and May 2018, Brown said. However, the diversion of another 23.9 million destined for 19,662 beneficiaries could be prevented before payments were made.
The investigation, of a 2019 report, He did not involve undocumented immigrants in that activity. “Our audits found that frauds can steal identities to work or claim benefits related to income,” Brown said in his written testimony, that he did not give demographic information about those who committed fraud.
However, cases of undocumented immigrants who improperly use social security numbers have been discovered to access fraudulent benefits.
“Certainly there are some immigrants who are receiving benefits when they should not, but I think It is a relatively small group of them “Said Watson.
Which immigrants can have access to Medicare?
According to a analysis, residents in the United States, including citizens and permanent residents, are entitled to part A Medicare without premiums if they have worked at least 40 quarters (10 years) in jobs in which they or Their spouses have paid taxes on Medicare payroll and are at least 65 years old.
In the case of legal immigrants over 65 who do not have this labor history they can acquire a medicine to legally reside in the country for five uninterrupted years. Legal immigrants (permanent non -citizen residents) under 65 years of age with disabilities can also opt for Medicare, but normally they must first meet the same eligibility requirements for the SSDI (disability benefits) that apply to citizens.
But new immigrants do not have the right to medicate independently of their age. When these people meet residence requirements, eligibility and registration will work as for others.
What medical care options have undocumented immigrants?
In 2023, half (50%) of the probably undocumented adult immigrants and one in five (18%) legally present adult immigrants said they had no insurance, compared to less than one in 10 naturalized citizens (6%) and citizens Born in the US (8%), according to a KFF analysis.
Non -citizen immigrants are more likely not to be assured than citizens because they have more limited access to private coverage because they work on jobs that are less likely to provide health benefits. They also face eligibility restrictions for the coverage options financed by the federal government, such as Medicaid, the Child Medical Insurance Program (CHIP), the coverage of the market for affordable assistance law (ACA) and Medicare.
And those that are eligible for coverage face a series of registration barriers, including fear, confusion about eligibility standards, and language access problems. “As a reflection of their greatest unprepared rate, non -citizen immigrants are more likely than citizens to inform the barriers to access medical care and to skip or postpone care,” KFF researchers say.
Many states such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, among others, offer health benefits to undocumented immigrants, but most people in this group lack health coverage apart from emergency care, according to the National Immigration Forum. Undocumented immigrants with sufficiently high income can hire private medical insurance.
Federal qualified clinics receive funds to provide services to low -income families. At least, in each large city or in each metropolitan area there is also a public hospital, which has care programs. In these places, chronic diseases can be treated and preventive treatments.
“Undocumented people have practically coverage options. And my experience is that his support is the community, ”he said in an interview with news Telemundo Victoria Ruiz-Marin, community organizer in the US rock mountains region with Planned Parenthood.
However, many undocumented workers are retained taxes on the payroll of their salaries, although they cannot collect benefits.
A recent analysis of the Institute of Economic Taxation and Policy shows that undocumented persons paid about $ 25.7 billion in Social Security taxes in 2022.
