As Trump blocks Medicaid funds, one trans teen's mom asks: What's next?

Transgender young people and their families rallied outside the Supreme Court in May 2023 after an event called the Trans Youth Prom in Washington, DC. Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption

The Trump administration finalized a new health care policy that has been in the works for months: No federal dollars can be used to pay for gender-affirming care for children covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Plan.

"Every time you wake up, it feels like — what's going to happen next?" says the mother who asked NPR to identify her by her initials, A.W. "What else are they going to take away from us and our kids, to keep them thriving?"

A.W., who is the parent of a transgender teenager, asked not to use her full name because she fears her family could be targeted or her children could be taken away by the federal administration.

The population affected by the rule the administration finalized on Tuesday is quite small. Health research organization KFF estimates there are 130,000 transgender people under age 18 who live in states where gender-affirming care is still available — many states have banned the care after a flurry of state laws in the last few years.

A.W.'s family is in that small group. After her husband's company went out of business, they lost their health benefits, and are now enrolled in Medicaid. They also rely on food assistance, and A.W. says those cuts have been hard on them too.

A longtime Republican herself, A.W. says she never would have believed her family would need this help. "But we do need it," she says. "We need it really badly right now because my husband is still unemployed."

She says she knew the rule restricting access to transgender care through Medicaid was coming, since it was proposed in December . Still, when it was published, she felt panicked. "The initial just — what are we going to do?"