BOSTON — Thursday, October 29, 2026 – Press Release – Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today secured a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts finding the Trump Administration’s implementation of new Medicaid work requirements under the Big Beautiful Bill Act unlawful.
In a lawsuit filed in June 2026, AG Campbell co-led a multistate coalition in challenging provisions of an interim final rule, which adopted a new interpretation of key terms like “medically frail,” making it harder for medically vulnerable individuals to be excused from the work requirements. In today’s decision, the District Court held that the Trump Administration’s definition of “medical frailty” is contrary to law, vacated the language, issued a permanent injunction, and granted the plaintiff states’ a six-month stay of enforcement to accommodate errors or delays during the initial roll out of the work requirements.
“Today the court ruled that the Trump Administration’s attempt to impose new, burdensome requirements on medically vulnerable Medicaid recipients is unlawful and effectively blocked these harmful rules from taking effect,” said AG Campbell. “This victory protects access to healthcare for residents with serious illnesses and disabilities and ensures their care won’t be interrupted due to unlawful red tape.”
Medicaid is the nation’s safety net healthcare program for low-income Americans and is jointly funded by states and the federal government, with the federal government providing at least 50% of the cost of services. Congress created exemptions from Medicaid’s work requirements to ensure that people with serious illnesses and disabilities do not lose coverage or face interruptions in care.
Yet despite months of working with states on implementation, earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) surprised states with an interim final rule that made it harder for medically vulnerable individuals to be excused from the work requirements and made other changes that increase administrative burdens, create unnecessary red tape, and put eligible people at risk of losing their health coverage — including those who qualify for an exemption.
Past Medicaid work requirement programs have shown that added red tape causes eligible people to lose coverage, placing greater strain on state Medicaid programs, safety net providers, and emergency rooms, while increasing costs as more medically frail residents become uninsured.
The lawsuit was co-led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport. They were joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, the governor of Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, the governor of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
