Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that a federal court has struck down a provision of a Trump administration rule that would have excluded certain types of gender-affirming care from the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the administration improperly modified the categories of essential health benefits without following procedures required under the ACA. Essential health benefits receive financial protections, including limits on out-of-pocket costs.
“The Trump Administration tried to make essential care unaffordable for transgender Marylanders by stripping it out of the Affordable Care Act’s cost protections,” Brown said. “We fought to keep that care covered, and we won.”
Brown joined a multistate coalition in July 2025 challenging nine provisions of the administration’s “Marketplace Integrity and Affordability” rule, arguing that they would make it more difficult to obtain ACA coverage and weaken existing protections.
Seven other challenged provisions were previously vacated in separate litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
