The Impact of The Government Shutdown: How Young Adult Patient Care is at Risk
By Grace Shults
The government has been shut down since October 1, 2025 due to the inability to come to a bipartisan consensus on how to continue funding the government through October 2025 and beyond. Due to this shutdown, social welfare programs that are controlled by the federal government are subject to delays or even complete closures which could impact benefits of millions of Americans, including young adults with chronic health conditions and/or disabilities.
One program that could face delays is Medicaid. Medicaid is the insurance program that provides free or low-cost insurance to many groups of people, including qualifying chronically ill and disabled people. 3 out of 4 Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled report having a chronic illness, meaning a significant amount of beneficiaries are receiving care they need for at least one chronic condition, possibly even more than that for some. Medicaid has been impacted in significant ways this year, including experiencing vast changes occurring under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that include increased work requirements for beneficiaries, increased paperwork requirements for eligibility and higher out of pocket costs. This could especially impact the estimated 3 out of 10 young adults aged 18-24 that are currently eligible by Medicaid.
The funding for Medicaid is not directly impacted by this shutdown as the funding is secured through the first quarter of FY26 (but not for long if the shutdown continues into the new year), as well as funded through state budgets as well. In spite of this, beneficiaries of Medicaid could experience delay in processing Medicaid eligibility verifications as well as steep administrative delays in Medicaid providers processing their claims due to the 47 percent of furloughed employees at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. Without claims being processed, providers may not be able to provide healthcare services as quickly or efficiently as they would prior to the shutdown. This could create serious barriers to care for beneficiaries, including the young adult patients that are dependent on Medicaid to get long-term access to their healthcare.
While young adults are aggregated into the entire adult population of statistics related to Medicaid beneficiaries, it is still important to note the impact delays in healthcare that the shutdown could perpetuate for young adults patients. Young adults aged 18-24 are most likely to experience poverty in America compared to any other age group, and if they have a disability that makes it more likely they will live in poverty compared to able-bodied people. Medicaid is a lifeline for young, sick and/or disabled adult patients that are impacted by the evergrowing cost of healthcare in America and need continued access to care.
Being a young adult patient is hard enough when you know that your healthcare is secure, but having the quality of your care or access to care in general impacted by an agency that cannot fully work adds unnecessary stress. The funding for Medicaid is secure for now, but the equally important administrative side of helping beneficiaries is not. Medicaid continues to be a staple for many folks who would likely not be able to access care without the program. It needs to work as efficiently as possible for patients to receive the necessary care they need.
Having Congress come to a bipartisan agreement on the Federal budget as quickly as possible could limit, and maybe even mitigate these possible issues for all beneficiaries, including young adult patients. For the sake of the health of millions of young adult chronically ill people, we need to continue to advocate for an agreement to be made sooner rather than later.
