HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's definition of who counts as "medically frail" under new Medicaid work requirements, siding with Connecticut and a coalition of states that sued over the rule, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong's office said Thursday.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the administration's definition of "medical frailty" is contrary to law, according to Tong's office. The court vacated that language and issued a permanent injunction. It also granted the plaintiff states a six-month stay of enforcement to account for errors or delays caused by the changes needed to carry out the work requirements, the office said.

Tong joined the multistate lawsuit in June. The suit challenged parts of an interim final rule issued by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to carry out work requirements under the law the release calls the Big Beautiful Bill Act. The states argued that the rule's new reading of terms such as "medically frail" made it harder for medically vulnerable people to be excused from the work requirements.

Congress wrote exemptions into the work requirements so that people with serious illnesses and disabilities would not lose coverage or have their care interrupted, according to the attorney general's office. The office said the federal rule also added administrative burdens that could put eligible people, including those already working or who qualify for an exemption, at risk of losing coverage.

Tong called the rule "another web of useless red tape" and said, "We sued and we stopped him."

Medicaid, the health program for low-income Americans, is jointly funded by the states and the federal government, which pays at least half the cost of services.

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