Mount Sinai Restricts Some Medicaid Patients Even as NYC Fights Trump’s ‘Public Charge’ Rule

Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City has moved to block some Medicaid patients from enrolling at the facility, citing lost revenue from the volume of patients on the program, even as Mayor Zohran Mamdani leads a multi-city lawsuit against the Trump administration’s effort to limit noncitizen access to public benefits.

The hospital’s policy change, announced in August, restricts certain Medicaid plans from being accepted for new enrollment. A Mount Sinai spokesperson, Lucia Lee, confirmed the move was a cost-saving measure in a statement obtained by Politico. “Mount Sinai is committed to ensuring that our patients have access to high-quality care while also maintaining the resources necessary to serve our communities,” Lee said.

Mount Sinai’s website separately states that it provides “no-cost, confidential health care and other support services” to undocumented immigrants “who have suffered a work-related injury or illness, regardless of documentation or insurance status.”

The Lawsuit Over the Public Charge Rule

Last month, Mamdani announced he was joining other Democrat-led cities in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s revived “public charge” rule, which is designed to make it harder for noncitizens who rely on public benefits to remain in or enter the country. He was joined in the announcement by New York Attorney General Letitia James and other progressive officials.

“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades,” Mamdani said. “New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to. That fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting.”

Mamdani said an estimated 4 million people nationwide could disenroll from health coverage as a result of the rule, including 1.8 million children, and warned that “people could die.” He added, “Cruelty is not how we choose to govern. Immigrants are New Yorkers.”

Welfare Use and State Policy

Separate reporting from Breitbart News found that about 47 percent of immigrant-headed households in the United States used one or more traditional forms of welfare between 2021 and 2025, compared with 28 percent of households headed by American citizens — a 19-point gap.

New York has also expanded its own benefits to noncitizens in recent years. As Vice President JD Vance noted last year, the state extended comprehensive Medicaid coverage to otherwise-eligible undocumented residents age 65 and older starting in January 2024.

The combination of New York’s expanded eligibility rules and Mount Sinai’s new restrictions on certain Medicaid enrollees has drawn attention to how a major New York City hospital manages competing pressures on its Medicaid caseload, even as the city’s mayor fights in court to preserve broader access to public benefits for noncitizens.