The White House was caught flat-footed on Tuesday after reports emerged that millions of Americans had been cut off from accessing Medicaid’s online portals in their states.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in her first briefing if the Trump administration could guarantee whether Medicaid recipients would have their benefits cut off, following Donald Trump’s order to suspend nearly all federal spending.
“I’ll check back on that and get back to you,” was Leavitt’s response. Leavitt later wrote that the administration was “aware” of the outage and claimed that “no payments have been affected.”
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Approximately 79 million Americans rely on Medicaid services for their health care needs. The system covers low-income people, including pregnant women, children, and the elderly in every state.
Multiple members of Congress have reported that their constituents can no longer access the Medicaid program’s online portals, which are used to request payments and funding for medical coverage.
“Multiple states locked out of Medicaid portal. This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it’s unlawful,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii wrote. His post was confirmed by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who wrote, “Connecticut’s Medicaid payment system has been turned off. Doctors and hospitals cannot get paid. Discussions ongoing about whether services can continue.”
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said his staff has confirmed that Medicaid portals were offline in all 50 states. “This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” he added.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, wrote, “Just confirmed that the Trump administration shutdown the Medicaid portal for Florida. There are over 3.8 MILLION Floridians on Medicaid.”
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez summed up the growing problem, noting, “Overnight, Republicans are destroying healthcare for millions of Americans – and it isn’t just Trump. Republican majorities in the House and the Senate are backing this illegal sabotage.”
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
When the order that triggered the shutdowns was first revealed by the Trump administration, Democrats in the House called it “insane” as the scope of the radical action—affecting nearly the entire federal apparatus—became clear.
The order issued by Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, ordered agencies to “pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” The office later issued a memo that claimed the scope of the order purportedly does not affect “direct” payments made from the federal government to individuals, but programs like Medicaid send funds to the states, not to recipients.
As written, the order is set to pause funding for efforts to fight crime, inspect food, fund early childhood education, and provide loans for students and small businesses.
Chaos and disorganization have been a hallmark of the early days of the second Trump administration as his policies put historical efforts to help the poor and disenfranchised in the crosshairs.
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