This is a proposed rule. The later August 2026 final cutoff is a separate paper.
On 19 December 2025 the Federal Register published CMS-2451-P — Medicaid Program; Prohibition on Federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Funding for Sex-Rejecting Procedures Furnished to Children. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz approved the document on 15 December 2025. Comments were due by 5 p.m. on 17 February 2026.
CMS’s own summary: a State Medicaid plan would have to provide that the agency will not pay for sex-rejecting procedures for children under 18, and federal Medicaid dollars would not fund those procedures for people under 18. A separate CHIP plan would have to do the same for children under 19, and federal CHIP dollars would not fund those procedures for people under 19. The notice keeps those ages separate.
This is the paper that became CMS-2451-F on 11 August 2026, effective 13 October 2026. See the final rule. Twenty-two states and D.C. later sued to keep the federal money flowing. Nothing in this December proposal blocked a clinic by itself.
- hhs
- united states