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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors on a broad basis. trump Administration’s ban on transgenders Americans,
Sweeping proposal – The most significant steps taken so far by this administration include federal cuts to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children. Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and preventing federal Medicaid funding from being used on such procedures.
More than half of US states already ban or restrict gender-affirming care. But Thursday’s announcement jeopardizes access in about two dozen states, where drug treatments and surgical procedures are legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars.
Proposals announced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his representatives are not final or legally binding. Before the restrictions become permanent, the federal government must go through a lengthy rule-making process, including a period of public comment and rewriting the document. They may also have to face legal challenges.
But the proposed rules would likely further deter health care providers from offering gender-affirming care to children, and many hospitals have already halted such care in anticipation of federal action.
Nearly all American hospitals participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the federal government’s largest health plans that cover seniors, the disabled, and low-income Americans. Losing access to those payments would put most American hospitals and medical providers at risk.
The same funding restrictions will apply to a smaller health program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a federal notice posted Thursday morning.
This approach contradicts the recommendations of most major US medical organizations, including American Medical AssociationWhich has urged states not to restrict care for gender dysphoria.
Young people who consistently identify themselves as having a gender that is different from the gender they were assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some people may attempt social change, including changing hairstyles or pronouns. Some may also later receive hormone-blocking drugs that delay puberty, followed by testosterone or estrogen to bring about the desired physical changes in patients. Surgery for minors is rare.
Medicaid programs in less than half of the states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or restricting the care. Federal judges have lifted the restrictions arkansas And declared Montana unconstitutional. Legal battles are going on in those states.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president of The Trevor Project, called these changes a “one-size-fits-all order from the federal government” on what should happen between a doctor and patient. “The efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to deny transgender and non-binary youth the health care they need is deeply troubling,” she said.
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Shastri reported from Milwaukee. Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report.