A federal judge has ruled that chronically ill people on Medicaid will not be bound by new work requirement rules, ABC News reported. According to the summary of that report, the latest Trump administration guidance requires recipients to meet the rules in order to qualify for "medically frail" exemptions.
PBS NewsHour separately reported that a judge blocked a Medicaid work requirement rule that forces proof of medical frailty. Its summary says twenty-five states sued the Trump administration in June over new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance tied to the 2025 law known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill." The summary does not describe the states' claims in detail.
The PBS NewsHour report carries a byline credited to Fatima Hussein of the Associated Press. The ABC News item lists no author. Both reports were published on October 29, 2026, according to their timestamps. Neither summary states whether the ruling arose from the lawsuit filed by the twenty-five states.
The two summaries use different wording to describe the rule. ABC News describes the affected group as chronically ill people on Medicaid, while PBS NewsHour describes the rule as one that forces proof of medical frailty. Neither summary describes the judge's reasoning, identifies the court, or reports a response from the administration.
Sources: ABC News: Judge blocks Trump administration's Medicaid rule forcing sick recipients to prove frailty; PBS NewsHour: Judge blocks Trump administration's Medicaid work requirement rule forcing proof of medical frailty.