President Trump Fulfills Another Major Promise to Parents

The Trump administration finalized a sweeping new rule this week that will cut off federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funding for gender transition procedures involving minors, delivering on a promise the president made more than a year and a half ago to stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing what he and many conservatives view as dangerous and unproven medical interventions on children.

President Trump announced the policy personally on Truth Social, revealing that he had directed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to formally end federal Medicaid support for the procedures.

“Today, at my direction, Dr. Mehmet Oz announced that Medicaid will NO LONGER fund gender transition surgeries and hormones for minors,” Trump wrote. “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 rule, finalized by CMS on August 11, will formally take effect on October 13 and applies to children under the age of 19 enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP nationwide. Once in force, it will bar federal funds from covering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments, and any surgical procedures intended to alter a minor’s body to align with a gender identity different from their biological sex.

Importantly, the policy does not make gender transition procedures illegal outright, nor does it prevent states from continuing to offer the treatments using their own funding. What it does is remove the federal taxpayer from the equation entirely, shifting the full financial burden onto individual states, private insurers, or families who wish to pursue these treatments for their children going forward.

That distinction matters enormously given how the American health care system actually operates. Medicaid and CHIP together cover a substantial share of lower-income children across the country, meaning the practical effect of this rule will fall hardest on families who cannot afford to pay out of pocket or secure private insurance that covers these procedures. States will now be forced to decide whether to backfill that funding with their own tax dollars or simply allow access to either for families who relied on Medicaid coverage.

The administration framed the decision as grounded in science rather than ideology. HHS Press Secretary Emily Hilliard stated plainly that the administration is drawing a clear line, declaring that America’s children will not be subjected to life-altering interventions on the taxpayer’s dime without reliable evidence of safety and clinical benefit.

CMS officials pointed specifically to the United Kingdom’s Cass Review, a landmark independent study led by pediatrician Hilary Cass and published in 2024, as key evidence supporting the policy shift. That review found only limited and low-quality evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in minors and concluded that medical practice in this area had raced ahead of the actual scientific evidence base.

The Cass Review has since prompted the United Kingdom’s own National Health Service to sharply restrict access to these treatments for children, a move that stands in stark contrast to how aggressively some American medical institutions continued pushing the procedures even as doubts mounted.

Dr. Oz was direct in explaining the administration’s reasoning. “Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits,” he said, framing the rule as consistent with the administration’s broader mission of shielding minors from medical decisions that carry lifelong and often irreversible consequences.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. echoed that sentiment, stating that the administration is ending federal taxpayer funding for what he described as sex-rejecting procedures on children, adding that these interventions carry serious risks and can cause irreversible harm.

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The rule builds directly on an executive order Trump signed in January 2025 during his first days back in office, which directed federal agencies to take every possible step toward ending federal support for the transition of children under 19 through puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery. Tuesday’s final rule represents the culmination of that directive following a lengthy public comment period and an extensive Department of Health and Human Services review of both domestic and international research on the subject.

Officials noted that the policy has already had ripple effects well beyond the formal rule itself. According to the administration, sustained pressure over the past year and a half has prompted dozens of hospitals across the country to voluntarily stop offering gender transition treatments to minors, even in advance of any formal federal mandate requiring them to do so.

Importantly, the new rule preserves Medicaid and CHIP coverage for mental health treatment related to gender dysphoria and other underlying conditions. Children struggling with these issues will still be able to access counseling and psychiatric care through the federal programs. What will no longer be covered are the physical medical interventions themselves, including hormone therapy and surgical procedures.