White House says Medicaid portal 'will be back online shortly' after Trump funding freeze blamed

FILE PHOTO: A rally against Medicaid cuts in front of the U.S. Capitol on June 6, 2017.

Medicaid reimbursement portals went down Tuesday in every U.S. state after the Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans, a senator said.

But the White House later said it expected the systems to "be back online shortly" without any effect on payments.

"My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in a post on the social media site X.

"This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed," he wrote.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said, "Connecticut's Medicaid payment system has been turned off."

"Doctors and hospitals cannot get paid," Murphy wrote in a tweet. "Discussions ongoing about whether services can continue."

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted, "This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it's unlawful."

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later wrote in a tweet, "The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage."

"We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent," Leavitt said. "We expect the portal will be back online shortly."

Several states, among them Arizona and Connecticut, regained access to their portals later Tuesday.