The Trump administration announced that Medicaid will stop paying for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender minors, and that the Children's Health Insurance Program will not cover those treatments for individuals under 19.
Trump said in a social media post that he directed Dr. Mehmet Oz — identified in the announcement as the CMS administrator — to make the change. In that post, Trump stated: 'We are not going to pay for our innocent children to undergo these barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies.'
The policy calls for Medicaid and CHIP to continue covering mental health treatment for transgender minors. Hormone treatments — used both to block puberty and to produce sex-related physical changes — will be phased out for those already receiving them as of April 2027.
The exact amount of taxpayer funding currently going toward gender-affirming treatments for transgender youth is not known. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to questions about the policy.
At least 27 states have already banned gender-affirming care for those under 18. Even in states without such bans, many major hospitals have stopped providing some of the treatments. Gender-affirming surgeries for minors are described as rare; puberty blockers and hormone treatments are more common.
The announcement is the latest in a series of policies the administration has directed at transgender people. The administration has also announced it would cut off Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for minors, barred transgender athletes from sports competitions for girls and women, and blocked people from designating 'X' as their sex on passports. It also released a report urging therapy only — not broader gender-affirming health care — for transgender youth.
Most of those policies have faced legal challenges. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration's passport policy to stand and allowed states to enforce sports bans. A lower court ruled against the administration's declaration that characterized the treatments as unsafe and ineffective. A challenge over the policy targeting hospitals remains pending.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders legal director Josh Rovenger said the rule 'is putting up barriers between parents and their ability to make the best medical decisions for their children' and would face a legal challenge. Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement: 'The Trump administration is terrorizing trans youth and their families with these kinds of actions, and it has to stop.' The HRC is already suing the administration over efforts to bar gender-affirming care coverage under federal employee benefit plans.
The American Medical Association and most other major medical organizations support access to gender-affirming care. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said earlier this year that it found 'insufficient evidence' that the benefits of chest, genital and facial surgeries on minors experiencing gender dysphoria outweigh the risks.
CEO Times view: The numbers here are straightforward: taxpayer dollars flowing through Medicaid and CHIP will no longer fund procedures that even the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has flagged as lacking sufficient evidence of benefit over risk for minors. That is not ideology — that is fiscal and medical accountability. The administration is drawing a line the market of public opinion has long been moving toward, as evidenced by 27 states acting independently before Washington did. Legal challenges will follow, as they always do when federal spending is redirected. But the core principle — that the taxpayer should not be compelled to fund irreversible interventions on children absent clear clinical evidence — is one that free-enterprise, limited-government readers will recognize as both sound policy and sound stewardship.
