Shock and fury as Trump administration holds back Medicaid funding to states over alleged caregiving fraud

The Trump administration announced last month that it would hold back $867m in Medicaid funding for California, joining an earlier halt of $1.34bn – totaling $2.2bn in withheld payments to the state. Officials are also holding on to a total of $550m in Medicaid funding for Minnesota from the past three quarters.

The amounts would cover services already paid by the states, for which the federal government normally partly reimburses them – creating a budgetary strain for the states, which have continued to cover Medicaid services despite the federal halt.