On January 27th, 2025, the Trump Administration issued an order (M-25-13) to freeze federal funding. Please see the below statement from Kentucky Voices for Health Executive Director, Emily Beauregard related to the fallout since yesterday’s announcement.
Media contact: Kelly Taulbee, 502.545.0688, kelly@kyvoicesforhealth.org
“We are grateful for this afternoon’s federal court order to block the federal funding freeze, that, over the course of the last 24-hours, has been confusing and alarming to process. Federal funding serves as a lifeline to many states’ health, education, veteran, public safety, and other safety net programs. Everything from Medicaid, the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP), Head Start, foster care and child welfare services are supported through federal funding, including countless Kentuckians employed through federal grant financing streams that support rape prevention, state level opioid response, emergency management, mental health block grants, and beyond.
Kentucky’s hardworking families deserve better than the uncertainty and chaos this federal funding freeze has placed on their lives so abruptly. If this is any indication for how we will see federal level cost-shifting of health and safety net programs to states, then all state policymakers, both administrative and legislative, should be alarmed and ready to take swift action to delay harmful impacts to Medicaid and KCHIP. Kentucky’s federal funding for Medicaid in a single fiscal year is larger than our entire state’s General Fund budget. Any hasty pause or cuts to this funding will lead to devastating outcomes for our already spread thin healthcare workforce.
We appreciate White House leadership indicating that Medicaid, CHIP, and other programs that serve our most vulnerable Kentuckians will not be impacted by the federal funding freeze, but what is happening on the ground so far has been the opposite of such guidance. We question how or why all 50 states managed to lose access to their payment management systems before the technical effective time of the Administration’s order, especially for programs that provide life-saving direct services like Medicaid and KCHIP. Without quick resolution and clarity, Kentuckians’ access to hospitals, federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and many other facilities that keep our communities healthy and safe are at risk. We call on the Trump Administration to take swift and judicious action to correct the confusion caused by Memo 25-13 to ensure all federal funding appropriated by Congress for direct services remains in place to support the health and wellbeing of Kentuckians.” — Emily Beauregard, Executive Director, Kentucky Voices for Health
