President Donald Trump said his administration will end Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for minors, framing the move as part of an effort to “protect America’s children.”
In a Tuesday evening post on Truth Social, Trump said he had instructed Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to carry out the new policy.
Trump argued that federal health dollars should not be used for procedures he described as harmful to children, claiming such care can cause “unthinkable and irreversible harm.” He also noted that some hospitals across the United States have already stopped offering the procedures.
Celebrating the decision, Trump said the policy would spare “young, innocent and perhaps confused children” from undergoing medical interventions he opposes.
The president also used the announcement to sharply criticize Democrats.
In his post, Trump accused the “Dumocrat Party” of supporting access to gender-related procedures for children before they are old enough to vote, while saying that he and the Republican Party consider that position “ABSURD” and are committed to protecting children.
He closed by urging voters to keep the issue in mind when casting ballots in the November midterm elections.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Medicaid will no longer fund gender transition surgeries for minors.
Under the new rule, federal Medicaid and CHIP funds would no longer cover treatments including puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries, among other care.
At least 27 states have moved to restrict gender-affirming care for children, according to health policy organization KFF.
It’s important to note, however, that gender-affirming surgeries – procedures intended to align a person’s physical characteristics with their gender identity – are rare among minors.
A damning medical study published last year found that that fewer than one in 1,000 US adolescents received puberty blockers or hormones over a recent five-year period.
‘We are not seeing inappropriate use of this sort of care,’ said study author Landon Hughes, a public health researcher at Harvard University.
‘And it’s certainly not happening at the rate at which people often think it is,’ he added.
In the study, researchers analyzed a large insurance claims database covering more than five million patients between the ages of eight and 17.
Just 926 adolescents with a gender-related diagnosis received puberty blockers between 2018 and 2022, while 1,927 received hormones.
Under the new rule, federal Medicaid and CHIP funds would no longer cover treatments including puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries, among other care
Together, the treatments were prescribed to fewer than 0.1 percent of all youth in the database, according to the findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.
‘I hope that our paper cools heads on this issue and ensures that the public is getting a true sense of the number of people who are accessing this care,’ Hughes said at the time.
The administration’s move is set to take effect October 13, though state funds could still be used to help cover the treatments.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, hit back at the funding cuts, with President Kelley Robinson demanding: ‘It has to stop.’
‘Every young person is entitled to the health care that they, their parents, and their medical providers agree that they need, without politicians interfering with these important and highly personal decisions,’ Robinson said in a press release.
‘And yet, rather than working to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, the Trump administration continues to obsess over the healthcare needs of trans youth, this time by cutting off health insurance coverage,’ she added.
‘The Trump administration is terrorizing trans youth and their families with these kinds of actions, and it has to stop.’
