Protect Trans Health Care – Stop the "Big Beautiful Bill"

President Donald Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" threatens to strip Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care from both minors and adults, jeopardizing the health and well-being of transgender individuals across the nation.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

1. Loss of Essential Health Coverage: The bill prohibits federal Medicaid funds from covering gender-affirming medical care for all ages, including hormone therapy and surgeries.

2. Disproportionate Impact on Low-Income Trans Individuals: Approximately 180,000 transgender adults rely on Medicaid. Without federal funding, many states may be unable or unwilling to cover gender-affirming care, leaving vulnerable populations without necessary medical services.

3. Mental Health Risks: Gender-affirming care is recognized by major medical associations as medically necessary. Denying access can lead to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender individuals.

4. Legal and Civil Rights Concerns: The bill's provisions may conflict with anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act, potentially leading to legal challenges and further uncertainty for patients and providers.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Everyone deserves access to the healthcare they need. Transgender people are already more likely to live in poverty due to widespread discrimination in jobs, housing, and healthcare. For many, Medicaid is the only way they can access life-saving care. This bill would pull that safety net out from under them. Gender-affirming care includes treatments like hormone therapy, counseling, and surgeries that are backed by every major medical association, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Multiple studies have shown that access to gender-affirming care dramatically lowers depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts among trans people—especially trans youth. Denying this care has the opposite effect: more pain, more trauma, more lives lost. This isn’t grounded in health or fiscal policy. It’s a political stunt rooted in misinformation and transphobia. Medicaid already covers gender-affirming care in many states because it’s cost-effective and evidence-based. If the government can decide what kind of health care people are allowed to get based on their identity, what’s next? This opens the door to more rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, and bodily autonomy.

Gender-affirming care is not experimental, it's health care. Taking it away isn’t just cruel—it’s dangerous.

Take Action

We can’t let this stand. This bill is part of a larger, coordinated effort to erase trans people from public life. But trans people belong here—and deserve care, dignity, and support. That’s why we need you to speak up. Write your members of Congress and demand they vote NO on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Lives depend on it.

In solidarity,

Innovation Ohio