Marketplace All-in-One Medical providers grapple with Trump's attempts to end gender-affirming care for minors
Feb 17, 2026
Samantha Fields, a senior health-care policy reporter, walks through how a proposed HHS rule and state bans are forcing hospitals and clinics to curb gender-affirming care for minors. She outlines why some programs are closing, how families are coping with disrupted access, and the strategies providers use to keep offering services under pressure.
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What Gender-Affirming Care Covers
- Gender-affirming care for minors includes puberty blockers, hormones, and rarely surgery.
- Samantha Fields frames these treatments as medical steps aligning bodies with gender identity.
Federal Rule Spurs Hospital Closures
- HHS proposed a rule to cut Medicare and Medicaid funds from hospitals offering gender-affirming care to minors.
- Hospitals fear losing crucial revenue so some have preemptively closed programs, Samantha Fields reports.
Hospitals Describe 'Difficult' Choices
- Hospitals in Colorado publicly said the decision to stop care was agonizing but necessary to protect other services.
- Providers described investigations and subpoenas as escalating pressures that pushed closures.