Sponsors (2)
Official title: To provide Medicaid assistance to individuals and families affected by a disaster or emergency, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 12, 2025 by James Varni Panetta · Last progress June 12, 2025
The bill sharply expands and funds short‑term Medicaid/CHIP and related Medicare protections and emergency flexibilities to keep disaster‑affected people connected to care, at the trade‑off of substantial federal cost, added administrative complexity, and limits on how long protections last or how widely some targeted supports will reach.
Low-income disaster survivors — including people with disabilities and pregnant individuals — gain immediate, streamlined Medicaid coverage (presumptive eligibility) during disasters for up to two years with expanded mental-health, substance-use, HCBS, care coordination, and continuous postpartum benefits, reducing uninsured gaps and medical bills.
States and U.S. territories receive full federal funding (100% FMAP) for Medicaid/CHIP services in impacted areas and for covered evacuees during relief periods, lowering state budget barriers and reducing out‑of‑pocket costs for beneficiaries.
Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in disaster-impacted areas avoid eligibility redeterminations and abrupt coverage loss during the relief period, preserving continuity of care for displaced or disrupted families.
Federal taxpayers face substantially higher short‑term costs because the federal government will pick up 100% of Medicaid/CHIP and related emergency spending in impacted areas and for evacuees during relief periods.
Coverage protections generally end with the relief period (commonly up to two years), so survivors with long-term recovery needs may become uninsured again when the temporary coverage expires.
States and providers will face additional administrative complexity and operational strain (verification/reporting, payment matching across states, CHIP allotment reconciliation, adopting HHS guidance), which could burden budgets and billing systems and slow care.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires Medicaid/CHIP coverage for qualifying disaster survivors for two years after qualifying declarations and funds those services at a 100% federal match.
Requires State Medicaid and CHIP plans to provide medical and pregnancy/child health coverage to qualifying disaster survivors for a two-year “relief coverage period” after certain disaster, national emergency, or public-health emergency declarations, beginning Jan 1, 2027. The federal government funds those benefits at 100% FMAP/CHIP match, pauses eligibility redeterminations in impacted areas, waives/expands certain Medicare/Section 1135 rules for evacuee destinations, funds an HCBS emergency response corps pilot, directs HHS guidance and technical assistance, and mandates a multi-year independent evaluation.