Latest News On LGBTQ+ Health

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Tribal Groups Assert Sovereignty as Feds Crack Down on Gender-Affirming Care

Native American groups declare that tribal sovereignty trumps state and federal efforts to restrict or ban gender-affirming care for two-spirit and LGBTQ+ tribal citizens. Tribes are analyzing the risk of opposing Trump’s policies, advocates say.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Here Come the ACA Premium Hikes

Medicaid may have monopolized Washington’s attention lately, but big changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act as well. Meanwhile, Americans are learning more about what’s in Trump’s big budget law, and polls suggest many don’t like what they see. Julie Appleby of KFF Health News, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews historian Jonathan Oberlander to mark Medicare’s 60th anniversary.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The Senate Saves PEPFAR Funding — For Now

The Senate narrowly approved the Trump administration’s request to claw back about $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting but refused to cut funding for the international AIDS/HIV program PEPFAR. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court ruled that West Virginia can ban the abortion pill mifepristone, which could allow states to block other FDA-approved drugs. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

The Foster Care System Has a Suicide Problem. Federal Cuts Threaten To Slow Fixes.

Children and young adults in the U.S. foster care system suffer from mental health disorders and die by suicide at far higher rates than the general population, yet the system doesn’t uniformly screen and treat children who are at risk.

Feds Investigate Hospitals Over Religious Exemptions From Gender-Affirming Care

Federal health officials are investigating claims that a Michigan health system fired an employee who sought a religious exemption to avoid calling transgender patients by their pronouns or referring them for gender-affirming care. Legal experts say the investigation escalates the Trump administration’s effort to curb medical care for transgender patients.

California’s Much-Touted IVF Law May Be Delayed Until 2026, Leaving Many in the Lurch

California lawmakers are poised to approve a six-month delay in implementing the state’s in vitro fertilization law, pushing its start to January 2026. The plan to postpone, which has drawn little attention, is part of the state budget package and has left patients, insurers, and employers in limbo.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Supreme Court Upholds Bans on Gender-Affirming Care

The Supreme Court this week said Tennessee may continue to enforce its law banning most types of gender-affirming care for minors. The ruling is likely to greenlight similar laws in two dozen states. And the Senate is preparing to vote on a budget reconciliation bill that includes even deeper Medicaid cuts than the House version. Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

Beyond Ivy League, RFK Jr.’s NIH Slashed Science Funding Across States That Backed Trump

A KFF Health News analysis underscores how the terminations have spared no part of the country, politically or geographically. Of the organizations that had grants cut in the first month, about 40% are in states President Donald Trump won in November.