Health officials from the Trump administration announced several moves Thursday that will have the effect of essentially banning gender-affirming care for transgender young people, even in states where it is still legal.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, announced the measures in a press conference at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.
The ban takes the form of two new proposed rules from Medicaid and Medicare. The first would prohibit doctors and hospitals from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. Medicaid is the health care program that covers low-income Americans.
The second would block all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. Virtually every hospital in the country takes Medicare, which covers older Americans and the disabled. Because hospitals rely on Medicare, the rule would have a wide-ranging effect.
Legislative action
The pivot to the topic of transgender minors comes one day after Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a package of health care bills that do not extend subsidies for people who buy health insurance in Affordable Care Act plans.
The legislative package included a bill, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that makes it a crime to provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors, punishable by a fine or prison time of up to 10 years. It passed on Wednesday.
Another bill, introduced by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, would prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care for youth. It is scheduled for a vote on Thursday. Both bills would also have to pass the Senate to become law.
Supporters and opponents of transgender rights agree that, taken together, the forthcoming hospital rules could make access to pediatric gender-affirming care across the country extremely difficult, if not impossible. The care is already banned in 27 states. The proposed rules will start a comment period after they are entered into the Federal Register; they will not take effect immediately.
