Cnn
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Trump administration freeze on federal subsidies Tuesday, triggered chaos and confusion in Medicaid State agencies.
Although the White House insisted that Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 72 million low -income Americans, was not affected by the frost he announced on Monday evening, those responsible for The state of Medicaid found themselves locked up from the federal funding portal for hours on Tuesday on Tuesday. They started to find access to the system in the afternoon.
The administration sent contradictory messages to Medicaid. The management and budget management office announcing the break on Monday said that social security, health insurance and direct assistance to individuals would not be affected, but did not mention Medicaid. The office has published an Q&R the next day indicating that “compulsory programs like Medicaid and Snap (food coupons) will continue without break”.
But during the first press point of the White House of the second term of President Donald Trump, the secretary of the press Karoline Leavitt could not immediately answer a question on the question of whether the funding of Medicaid was included in the Gel, telling journalists that she should check and come back to it with whether the registrants could be cut. Leavitt later Posted on X That the White House knows that the Medicaid portal is down and said it “will be back online shortly”.
“We have confirmed that no payment had been assigned-they are always treated and sent,” she posted.
A federal judge Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked Part of the Trump administration plans to freeze federal aid.
State Medicaid agencies have lost access to the payments management system (PMS) of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (PMS).
An opinion was displayed in red on the PMS site indicating: “Due to decrees concerning the payments of potentially unalteenable subsidies, PMS takes additional measures to treat payments. Applicable programs and payments examinations will lead to delays and / or payments discharges. »»
“My staff confirmed that Medicaid portals have broken down in the 50 states after the freezing of federal funding last night,” said senator Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, Posted on X Tuesday afternoon. “This is a blatant attempt to tear health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will have people killed.”
The Connecticut Social Services Department told CNN that medical officials could not connect to the system on Tuesday morning, but said access was restored in the afternoon. Medicaid policy experts also told CNN that they heard additional reports of states able to connect.
Medicaid state agencies use the PMS system to write funds to pay hospitals, doctors and other suppliers who deal with Medicaid beneficiaries, as well as to pay insurers, who contract with the states to cover the registrants. Many states access the system on a quarterly basis, but some reduce the necessary funds towards the end of each month to make payments at the start of the next one.