President Donald Trump’s move to freeze federal funding for a massive number of government programs seems to have impacted Medicaid payment systems across the country, potentially locking 72 million Americans out of their health insurance.
Several lawmakers took to social media on Tuesday afternoon to confirm that that their state’s Medicaid payment systems have been shut off.
“Can confirm. Connecticut’s Medicaid payment system has been turned off. Doctors and hospitals cannot get paid,” wrote Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut in a post on the social media site X. “Discussions ongoing about whether services can continue.”
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said on X that his staff has confirmed that Medicaid portals in all 50 states are down due to the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze.
The U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not immediately respond to request for comment from Quartz.
“The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage. We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
Leavitt added, that the White House expects that the “portal will be back online shortly.”
Trump’s acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mathew J. Vaeth sent a memo on Monday to federal department heads ordering them to stop all financial assistance — including loans and grants — to government programs until agencies can review them to ensure they align with Trump’s recently issued executive orders that target “DEI, woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal.”
“This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities,” the memo said.
The pause is supposed to go into effect today 5 p.m. ET and makes exceptions for Medicare, Social Security benefits; and grants and loans allocated for individuals. Agencies have until Feb. 10 to submit details on their spending to the OMB.
Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance to low-income Americans. As of October, over 72 million people were enrolled in Medicaid.
Critics of the freeze say it is illegal since the power of the purse is given to Congress by the constitution. The freeze could also be violating the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 which sets procedures for Congress to review budget withholdings from the executive branch.