As our nation celebrates our 250th anniversary this weekend, the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) faces a deadline to determine who will be terminated from Medicare early next year. H.R.1, the One Big Beautiful Bill, was signed into law on July 4, 2025. As noted in prior CMA Alerts (see, e.g., one from June 4, 2026), among many harmful provisions that are having (and will have) devastating impacts on our health care system, H.R.1 imposed a deadline one year from passage for SSA to identify lawfully present individuals whose Medicare coverage will be terminated due to new eligibility restrictions. People losing their entitlement to Medicare include refugees and asylees, individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), humanitarian parolees, survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence and people granted withholding of removal, regardless of how long they have lawfully resided and worked in this country and paid into Medicare and Social Security.
The law mandates that impacted individuals be notified of their anticipated Medicare termination as soon as practicable after identification. A recent presentation given by a branch of the Dept. of Health & Human Services to Medicare stakeholders confirms that these notices will be sent “Likely July or August 2026” and suggests “Advis[ing] impacted individuals to contact SSA for a in-person appointment if the notice does not apply (likely some instances)”. As noted in our recent CMA Alert, neither the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nor SSA have issued any public guidance regarding these sweeping changes. The Center for Medicare Advocacy is concerned about and closely following this issue, and is interested in hearing confidentially from individuals who receive immigration status-related Medicare termination notices.
July 2, 2026 – D. Lipschutz