Emergency Medicaid spending accounts for less than 1% of program's expenses, study finds

Emergency Medicaid spending is an issue partly fueling the federal government's shutdown, with Republicans pushing for a trillion-dollar cut to the program.

Emergency Medicaid spending, an issue partly fueling the federal government's ongoing shutdown, accounts for less than 1% of the federal health insurance program's total expenses, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study analyzed data from Washington, D.C., and 38 states that reported their emergency Medicaid expenditures for fiscal year 2022.

The researchers found that, overall, emergency Medicaid constituted 0.4% of total Medicaid expenditures, at an average cost of about $10 per person. Services covered by emergency Medicaid are life-saving procedures, including childbirth labor and delivery, the authors wrote. Some states also cover dialysis and cancer treatments.

Republicans in Congress support a trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid, which they say will only limit care for immigrants who lack legal status and others “lawfully present” in the United States — including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program beneficiaries, who came to the U.S. illegally as children; people who have Temporary Protected Status; and refugees and people seeking asylum who are still going through the legal process.

U.S. law already prohibits unauthorized immigrants from obtaining any federally subsidized health care coverage through Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or otherwise.