Sponsors (10)
Introduced June 12, 2025 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress June 12, 2025
The bill greatly improves and speeds health coverage and surge care for disaster survivors (especially low-income people, pregnant people, children, and those needing HCBS) by federalizing costs and relaxing administrative barriers — at the trade-off of substantially higher federal spending, added state administrative burden, some short-term risks of improper payments and uneven/delayed implementation across states.
Low-income and uninsured disaster survivors gain immediate Medicaid eligibility and related coverage for relief-eligible periods, with the federal government paying 100% of medical costs for those services during the declared disaster window.
Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in disaster-affected areas (including pregnant people and children) are protected from losing coverage during the relief period and receive continuous postpartum/newborn protections.
People with disabilities, older adults, and displaced patients can access expanded home- and community-based services (HCBS) and receive targeted support through an HCBS emergency response corps and related surge-capacity planning.
Taxpayers will face materially higher federal spending because the federal government covers 100% of disaster-related Medicaid/CHIP costs, funds grants and evaluations, and shoulders expanded temporary benefits.
State governments will incur significant administrative and operational burdens — creating new enrollment processes, managing cross-state payments, handling reconciliations, and absorbing short-term cash-flow and staffing pressures.
Implementation delays and limited program scale (e.g., grant slots, a FY2027 start date, and allowance for delayed state legislation) mean many survivors could wait weeks or months for some protections, producing uneven access across states and disasters.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires State Medicaid coverage for disaster survivors for up to 2 years, pauses redeterminations in impact areas, provides 100% FMAP for covered care, expands waiver authority, and funds HCBS grants.
Requires State Medicaid programs to provide medical coverage to people who are displaced or directly affected by major disasters for a defined “relief coverage period” (two years after a qualifying disaster). It pauses eligibility redeterminations for people living in disaster impact areas, makes the federal government pay 100% of Medicaid and CHIP costs for care provided in those areas during the relief period, expands emergency waiver authority to areas receiving evacuees, excludes relief months from Medicare Part B late-enrollment penalty calculations, and funds grants and technical support to help states meet increased needs. Also creates a small grant program to build Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) emergency response teams, requires HHS guidance and a plan-of-action, and mandates an independent multi-year evaluation of the law’s effects on survivors, providers, and state operations.