(Bloomberg) -- Government officials from across the US said states were locked out of the Medicaid payments system after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered a freeze to federal funds.
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Democratic officials including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz sounded the alarm on Tuesday. Difficulties in accessing the payments system came even after the White House said Medicaid shouldn’t be impacted by an order issued late Monday to freeze disbursement of all federal grants and loans “to the extent possible” under the law.
“The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X Tuesday afternoon. She said that no payments were affected and that the site should be online “shortly.”
Spokespeople for Medicaid agencies from Connecticut and Hawaii said the system was back online Tuesday afternoon after earlier disruptions.
Medicaid is a program that provides health care for low-income Americans and a source of revenue for health companies across the country. Shares of Centene Corp., a top Medicaid insurer, fell as much as 3.9% Tuesday before paring losses. Molina Healthcare Inc. shares dropped as much as 3.8% and Elevance Health Inc. fell as much as 2.3%.
Murphy of Connecticut said on X that the state’s Medicaid system “has been turned off,” and Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said that “Trump is blocking” his state’s access to the Medicaid portal. Schatz of Hawaii said that “multiple states” are “locked out” of the portal.
“The US Constitution does not grant the president this unilateral authority,” Pritzker said in a post on X early Tuesday. “In Illinois, we will stand against unlawful actions that would harm millions of working families, children, and seniors.”
The payment system’s telephone hotline was swamped, the queue stretching nearly two hours on Tuesday afternoon when a Bloomberg reporter called. “We have no information to share regarding the delay and/or rejections of payments at this time,” an automated message said.
A Massachusetts official said the state is experiencing delays accessing the system, but it was unclear whether it was related to the federal memo or coincidental. The state isn’t halting payments to medical providers or health plans, the official said.