HHS and CMS end Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for minors; a pediatrician supportive of the policy speaks out
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced on Tuesday a policy ending Medicaid funding for gender-affirming medical and surgical treatments for minors. The administration described the targeted procedures as "experimental." Only one outlet's coverage was available for this synthesis.
Single source · Not corroborated
The Trump administration's HHS and CMS issued a joint policy Tuesday restricting Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming medical and surgical interventions for youth. The announcement marks one of the most direct federal funding actions yet on pediatric gender care, affecting Medicaid-covered minors nationwide.
Fox News Digital was the primary outlet covering this story, and its reporting centered on an interview with Dr. Quentin Van Meter, identified as the immediate past president of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) and a pediatric endocrinologist with 42 years of experience. Van Meter said he welcomed the policy, stating, "This is not denial of care. This is not lack of compassion." He argued that puberty-altering interventions can worsen the mental health of children experiencing gender dysphoria and called instead for ongoing mental health treatment to address what he described as underlying psychological distress.
Van Meter pointed to a federally funded, NIH-sponsored five-year study begun in 2015, titled "The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth," which examined outcomes of sex-change hormones in children. He said that by the study's second year, three participants had died by suicide, and that researchers subsequently declined to publish the data. A Republican-led Senate committee reviewed the study in 2024 and accused researchers of "intentionally withholding scientific data" showing that puberty blockers did not improve children's mental health. Fox News did not include responses from the study's researchers or from independent scientific reviewers.