Medicaid at Risk for Hundreds of Thousands of Lawfully Present Immigrants

Refugees. Sex-trafficking victims. People fleeing war. They’re among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the country legally who no longer qualify for Medicaid. The change, in effect since Oct. 1, is part of the 2025 Republican tax law, which cuts Medicaid spending by an estimated $900 billion through 2034.

KFF Health News rural health reporter Andrew Jones joined WAMU’s Health Hub on Oct. 21 to explain which Medicaid enrollees are affected in the Washington, D.C., region and what other cuts to health services for immigrants are next.

US Poised To Boot Legal Immigrants From Medicaid, Including Refugees and Sex-Trafficking Victims

The Congressional Budget Office estimated 100,000 more immigrants will be uninsured by 2034 because of Medicaid eligibility changes under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that take effect Oct. 1. A KFF Health News survey of nine states found many more are at imminent risk of losing health coverage.

By Phil Galewitz, Andrew Jones, and Claudia Boyd-Barrett Sept. 30, 2026 KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.