National Coalition for LGBTQ Health Statement on Federal Actions Affecting Gender-Related Care, Medicaid, and Hospital Stability

WASHINGTON, DC, December 19, 2025 – The National Coalition for LGBTQ Health strongly opposes the proposed rule threatening the withdrawal of federal funding from hospitals as a means of restricting gender-related medical care for minors.

The rule directly targets the provision of gender-related medical care for minors, but does so by leveraging Medicare and Medicaid participation in ways that extend far beyond the specific care at issue and imperil hospital operations broadly. This action comes as Medicaid is already under significant strain due to HR1 and the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” compounding financial and operational instability across the health care system. Medicare and Medicaid together account for nearly half of hospital revenue nationwide, and the threat of funding termination places hospitals—particularly those in secondary urban markets and rural communities with thin margins—at existential risk.

The National Coalition for LGBTQ Health urges policymakers to recognize that destabilizing Medicaid-financed hospitals disrupts shared clinical decision-making across entire communities, interferes with the patient-clinician relationship, and undermines access to care across regions—weakening the public health infrastructure patients and communities depend on.

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