Update, January 28: US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked Trump’s scheduled funding freeze for federal programs minutes before it went into effect, until Monday.
A late-night memo announcing a freeze on federal grants—and subsequent failures by the Trump White House to clarify the details of the funding pause—plunged the country into chaos on Tuesday, with reports of Medicaid portals getting abruptly shut down amid the widespread confusion.
The blocked Medicaid access appeared to concern both healthcare providers and patients. An Indiana Medicaid recipient, who said that they had been able to access a patient-side portal two days ago, told Mother Jones that the site was under maintenance Tuesday. In some states, such as Maryland, Medicaid portals appeared to be working as of Tuesday afternoon.
NEW: 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. https://t.co/6cqzQpyOoz
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 28, 2025
The alarming reports came as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in her first briefing at the podium, repeatedly struggled to answer questions regarding an order from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget temporarily pausing—”to the extent permissible under applicable law”—”all federal financial assistance.” Though the order made clear that Social Security and Medicare would not be affected, it failed to provide significant details, including which programs, such as SNAP food assistance, would be halted.
Amid the confusion, OMB issued a second memo Tuesday afternoon that said the freeze would not affect “assistance provided directly to individuals”—such as SNAP and Medicaid—a claim Leavitt repeated from the podium. But when pressed for specifics, Leavitt either sidestepped or appeared unable to answer.
“Are you guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cut-off because of the policy?” a reporter asked.
“I’ll check back on that,” Leavitt responded.
Shortly after the briefing, Leavitt wrote in a social media post that the White House was aware of “the Medicaid website portal outage.”
Together, the two memos, as well as the back-and-forth at Tuesday’s press briefing, demonstrated the sheer bludgeoning effect of Trump’s blitz of executive orders since returning to office last week—regardless of their questionable legality. Meanwhile, as states scramble to sue the Trump administration over the federal grant pause, the consequences for many have already arrived.
“The uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today,” a spokesperson for the non-profit said on Tuesday. “Which unfortunately means seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from.”
Just got off the phone with a medical provider who accepts Medicaid. Because they are shut out from the Medicaid portal, they might not be able to make payroll. They exclusively serve low-income Floridians.
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) January 28, 2025