Key facts
- Judge blocked rule narrowing Medicaid work requirement exceptions for medically frail recipients.
- Rule would have forced vulnerable individuals to clear hurdles for health insurance.
- Judge Stearns upheld other provisions of the rule challenged by Democratic states.
A federal judge in Boston on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a rule that would have narrowed exceptions to new work requirements for Medicaid recipients with serious medical conditions. US District Judge Richard Stearns sided with 25 states and the District of Columbia, who argued the rule would force medically frail individuals to lose their government-funded health insurance. The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had issued the rule in June to guide states on implementing work requirements enacted as part of a tax and spending measure. Judge Stearns found that CMS's rule unlawfully limited the definition of 'medically frail,' but he upheld other provisions that had been challenged by Democratic-led states.