Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

Alongside Attorneys General of New York and Oregon, Washington’s Attorney General Nick Brown is co-leading a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over their newly proposed rules that would strip Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care to Transgender and Nonbinary youth. The coalition argues that HHS and RFK Jr.’s claims that gender-affirming care is “unsafe and ineffective” is out of accordance with federal law, as it attempts to alter medical standards while neglecting to hold a traditional notice and comment period. 

The feds dropped this declaration, including removing chest binder access for youth, on December 18 and the states followed suit on December 23, asking the court to toss out this unlawful declaration. 

“The law does not change on one man’s whim, and this care remains legal under federal and state law. The administration is stigmatizing young people and unlawfully trying to rob them of care that is lifesaving in some instances,” Brown said. “This action is as cruel and unnecessary as it is illegal, but consistent with an administration that puts politics above health.”

The coalition said HHS and RFK Jr.’s proposed rules would harm patients and reduce access to health care, and increase provider shortages. Within days of this information becoming public, fear radiated through Trans and Nonbinary youth and families, wondering if access to their care would be ripped out from under them. One TikTok user commented on TtS’s post and said:

“I worried so much about this I asked my child if they minded waiting a bit to start hormones. I was scared they would start and it would get banned.” 

Not only that, medical institutions and providers are forced to choose between caring for their patients and upholding their healthcare oaths, or placing their livelihoods first. State Medicaid programs, like Washington’s Apple Health, which covers about 2 million people as of February, are also at risk. Just under 6,000 distinct medical providers in Washington offer gender-affirming care via Apple Health, who the proposed rules directly threaten, but that this type of care remains lawful and protected in the state. 

The public has until February 17, 2026 to submit public comment on the declaration, but the Washington Attorney General’s Office (AGO) emphasized that HHS is using this declaration to undermine basic legal procedures for policy changes. 

“Federal law requires agencies to provide the public with notice and an opportunity to comment before making significant changes to health care policy. Instead, HHS issued what it arbitrarily called a declaration and attempted to make it effective nationwide immediately, without consulting doctors, patients, or states. The attorneys general contend that this is a clear overreach by the federal government, given that HHS does not have the authority to take such an action.” 

— Washington AGO

Other states in the coalition are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. 

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