Multiple lawmakers in Congress reported Tuesday that states are being shut out of Medicaid payment portals after the Trump administration enacted a freeze on all federal financial assistance — despite a new White House fact sheet saying Medicaid is not subject to the pause.
Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states, according to a post on X from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Wyden called it a “blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight” that “will get people killed.”
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida also confirmed Medicaid payment systems are offline in their states.
Illinois processed $518 million in Medicaid bills on Thursday and received its federal match funds on Monday, before the Trump administration shut down the state’s access to the Medicaid portal, according to comptroller Susana Mendoza.
“However, I am very concerned about how long this ‘freeze’ may last,” Mendoza said in a statement, calling the Trump administration’s action “reckless.”
The reports conflict with messaging coming from the White House. “Mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause,” according to a Q&A from the Trump administration obtained by Healthcare Dive.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is aware of the Medicaid portal outages and expects it to “be back online shortly” in a post on X Tuesday afternoon.
“We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent,” Leavitt said.
Providers have reported other payment systems are also offline, suggesting the outages could be part of a broader shutdown of federal portals related to grants and funding.
The HHS’ payment management website currently has a warning notice that payments may be delayed or rejected “due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments.”
On Monday, Trump’s acting budget director sent a memo to all federal agencies directing them to halt all financial assistance, including grants and loans, starting at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday. The pause will remain in place until the Office of Management and Budget has a chance to review the spending, according to the memo.
The goal is to ensure agencies’ use of federal dollars complies with recent executive orders from Trump, including ones cutting back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, increasing deportation of illegal immigrants and restricting elective abortions.
Democrat lawmakers and some lawyers criticized the freeze, noting the executive branch doesn’t have the power to unilaterally change the disbursement of congressionally appropriated funds. Experts also raised concerns about a lack of clarity in the OMB’s memo. Though it expressly states the freeze doesn’t apply to Medicare and Social Security benefits, it doesn’t mention Medicaid, under which some 80 million low-income Americans receive healthcare.
Halting federal Medicaid funding would be a huge blow to states, providers and patients across the country. It would also likely be illegal, as the law requires the CMS to match states’ Medicaid funds each quarter.
The OMB’s omission quickly raised red flags. Stakeholders, including state Medicaid directors, health policy researchers and patient advocates, urged the Trump administration to say one way or the other whether Medicaid funding will continue.
“Any pause in federal funding of Medicaid – the largest source of federal funding received by states – would be disastrous,” Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said in a statement. “That such a memo could have been drafted without clarifying this question is negligent and suggests a callous indifference to the tens of millions of Americans who are covered by Medicaid.”
During a White House press conference Tuesday afternoon, Leavitt reiterated that the pause on federal grant programs doesn’t include funding for individual assistance programs, including Social Security, Medicare, food stamps or welfare benefits. Leavitt did not commit to Medicaid being exempt from the freeze.
The president’s move to halt the spending is widely seen as unconstitutional and has already been challenged in the courts.
The White House Q&A argues that halting federal disbursements is not illegal, but is instead a “temporary pause to give agencies time to ensure that financial assistance conforms to the policies set out in the President’s Executive Orders, to the extent permitted by law.”
Along with Medicaid and SNAP, “any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause,” the Q&A reads. “Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comment from the White House.
