Federal judge shuts down Trump's attempt to end ACA's gender-affirming care coveragehttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/08/federal-judge-shuts-down-trumps-attempt-to-end-acas-gender-affirming-care-coverage/ 🔗Daniel Villarreal (18 Aug 2026)
A federal judge on Friday ruled against a Trump administration provision to to remove gender-affirming care as an essential health benefit covered under the Affordable Care Act, a 2010 law (also known as Obamacare) which requires the federal government to subsidize such benefits.
Senior U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton (an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush) ruled that Trump's Department of Health exceeded its authority when, in 2025, it issued the Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Final Rule. The rule said that, beginning in 2026, new individual and small-group insurance plans would exclude certain gender-affirming procedures from the federal government's list of pre-approved and subsidized essential health benefits, Advocate reported.
Twenty-one states sued the administration over the rule's provisions, stating that the department violated federal rule-making laws while illegally revoking people's healthcare coverage and harming them with increased costs.
Some attorneys general from those states celebrated Judge Gorton's ruling.
"The federal government tried to illegally deny promised health coverage that Washingtonians rely on," said Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown. "As this administration tries to make health care more expensive and difficult to access, we will fight to keep it as affordable and accessible as possible."
