'Terrible Development': Trump Admin Restricts State Efforts to Help Kids Stay on Medicaid

The Trump administration on Thursday said it will restrict waivers that have allowed states to keep kids enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program beyond the 12-month period of continuous coverage required under federal law.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), led by Mehmet Oz, announced the move on Thursday, saying that it has informed states of a "clear shift away from policies that extend beyond statutory limits," specifically restricting Section 1115 waivers that have been sought and approved in dozens of states across the U.S.

"CMS will allow currently approved initiatives to run out their course but does not anticipate extending them nor approving new waivers," the agency said in a statement, which came less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed into law the largest Medicaid cuts in U.S. history.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, called the CMS announcement a "terrible development" and "yet one more awful example of the Trump administration's obsession with making it as hard as possible for Americans to access the healthcare they are eligible for."

In 2022, Oregon became the first state in the nation to receive federal approval to provide children with continuous Medicaid coverage from birth up to age 6 through a Section 1115 waiver. The policy was described as a "ground-breaking initiative" that would "help infants and young children get off to a healthy start in life without parents having to worry about renewing their Medicaid coverage annually," regardless of temporary changes to family income or other factors.

The CMS announcement points to the Oregon policy without explicitly naming the state. Oregon's federal waiver is set to expire in 2027.

Wyden said Thursday that "the Trump administration will stop at nothing to rip coverage away from American families, even kids they claim they want to protect."

Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families, wrote that "in the name of 'protecting vulnerable Americans,' the Trump administration will rip away Medicaid coverage from babies and toddlers."

CMS insisted that the newly announced changes are aimed at protecting Medicaid's finances by ensuring that those who are no longer eligible for the program are removed.

But Amaya Diana, a policy analyst at the health research organization KFF, wrote Thursday that "not everyone who loses coverage at renewal is no longer eligible."

"During the unwinding of the [pandemic-era] Medicaid continuous enrollment provision, seven in 10 Medicaid enrollees who lost coverage were disenrolled for procedural reasons," Diana noted. "While some were no longer eligible, others lost coverage due to barriers such as communication issues."