Twenty-Two States and D.C. Sue to Stop the Rule That Cuts Off Federal Medicaid and CHIP Money for Transgender Minors — Filed Six Weeks Before It Takes Effect, and RFK Jr. Says the Care "Fails to Meet the Evidentiary Standard Our Children Deserve"
On September 2-3, 2026 a coalition of 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, joined by the Governor of Pennsylvania, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block a Department of Health and Human Services rule that bars federal Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement for gender-affirming care for minors. The rule, finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on August 13, 2026 and effective October 13, prohibits federal matching funds for puberty-suppressing medication, hormone therapy and surgery for Medicaid beneficiaries under 18 and CHIP beneficiaries under 19 — while leaving the identical treatments reimbursable when provided to patients who are not transgender. Children already on hormone therapy get up to six months of continued funding after the effective date. HHS received more than 30,000 comments on the proposal; more than 90 percent opposed it. The complaint argues the rule exceeds HHS's statutory authority, misuses the evidence offered to justify it, and would set a precedent that the executive branch can substitute a categorical agency ban for the individualized judgments of licensed clinicians without any authorization from Congress. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield led the filing; California's Rob Bonta, Illinois's Kwame Raoul, Maryland's Anthony Brown, Connecticut's William Tong and Massachusetts's Andrea Joy Campbell co-led. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had defended the rule when it was finalized in August, saying the government would no longer fund procedures he characterized as carrying risk of irreversible harm.
“No federal agency has the power to directly regulate the practice of medicine—a traditional and congressionally recognized power reserved for the states.”