Colorado and 19 other states are suing the federal government in order to prevent Medicaid data from being shared with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The lawsuit argues that federal law only allows states and the federal government to share Medicaid enrollees’ personal data if necessary to run the program or to identify fraud.

This is about flouting seven decades of federal law policy and practice that have made it clear that personal healthcare data is confidential and can only be shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit the public’s health or the Medicaid programme.