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(The Hill) – State Medicaid programs across the country are reporting they’ve lost access to federal payment portals one day after President Trump announced a freeze on federal grants and aid.
On Monday, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Matthew Vaeth issued a memo stating agencies must halt “all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” to the “extent admissible by applicable law.”
On Tuesday, state Medicaid programs reported that they have been blocked from accessing the portals that provide states with federal funding.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote on X, “My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) similarly shared of states losing access.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X Tuesday afternoon that the White House was “aware of the Medicaid website portal outage” but had “confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent.”
“We expect the portal will be back online shortly,” she added.
An OMB memo issued Tuesday stated, “Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.”
During a press briefing earlier on Tuesday, Leavitt insisted that Medicaid would not be affected by the pause but when asked for a guarantee that no person on Medicaid would see a cutoff, she said, “I’ll check back on that and get back to you.”
According to Medicaid.gov, nearly 80 million people in the U.S. were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October 2024. Of those enrolled in either program, more than 37 million were children.
An OMB memo issued Tuesday stated, “Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.”
During a press briefing earlier on Tuesday, Leavitt insisted that Medicaid would not be affected by the pause but when asked for a guarantee that no person on Medicaid would see a cutoff, she said, “I’ll check back on that and get back to you.”
According to Medicaid.gov, nearly 80 million people in the U.S. were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October 2024. Of those enrolled in either program, more than 37 million were children.
Christine Stuart, deputy director of communications for the Connecticut Department of Social Services, said, “The payment management system is unable to be accessed” when reached for comment.
A spokesperson for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) told The Hill the program “is currently locked out of the Federal Payment Management System, this means that at this time AHCCCS is unable to draw down any federal funding including funding for our non-discretionary Title XIX and Title XXI programs.”
State Medicaid programs across the country are reporting they’ve lost access to federal payment portals one day after President Trump announced a freeze on federal grants and aid.
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