Overview
- One draft rule would bar federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming medical care for patients under 18 and prohibit CHIP reimbursement for those under 19.
- Another draft would withhold all Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care, an approach experts call unprecedented.
- Health policy analysts say tying participation in Medicare and Medicaid to ending youth programs would likely force hospitals to shutter these services even for privately insured patients.
- HHS plans to publish the drafts next month, after which no immediate changes occur as a formal notice-and-comment period begins and litigation is widely anticipated.
- Civil-rights groups including the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign condemned the proposals, while major medical organizations continue to support gender-affirming treatments for youth and 27 states already restrict some forms of this care.