Put Patients Before Politics
In July 2025, Yale New Haven Health abruptly ended prescribing evidence-based, legally protected and medically necessary treatments to transgender young people. At the time, YNHH executives pointed to federal threats, including unlawful executive orders and rumors of rules under consideration by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as the reason.
Today, the federal government published a final CMS rule restricting federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming treatments for minors. Notably, the administration has not published the separate hospital Conditions of Participation rule that would have sought to bar hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from providing this care altogether. That proposal was announced alongside the Medicaid and CHIP funding restriction in December 2025, but more than eight months later, CMS still has not issued it as a final rule—and there is little reason to believe it will.
That distinction matters. The rule published today restricts federal funding; it does not, by itself, prohibit Yale New Haven Health from providing medically appropriate care to transgender adolescents.
Ask Yale to choose its patients.
This is precisely the moment when Yale’s leadership matters.
Yale New Haven Health is one of Connecticut’s largest and most respected health systems. It has the expertise, resources, and institutional standing to demonstrate that medical decisions should be made by medical professionals—not dictated by politicians.
Our demands:
1. Resume prescribing.
Yale New Haven Health should restore access to gender-affirming medications for transgender adolescents who are appropriate candidates for treatment.
2. Put doctors and patients first.
Treatment decisions should be based on individualized medical judgment, informed consent, and the best available evidence—not political directives.
3. Protect patients.
Yale should protect the privacy of transgender patients and their families and resist unnecessary political intrusion into confidential medical care.
4. Work with Connecticut.
Yale should work with state leaders, advocates, providers, and affected families to develop lawful mechanisms to preserve access to care as federal restrictions take effect.
The message is simple:
Washington does not belong in the exam room, and never did.
Yale can either continue to allow federal political pressure to determine what its doctors can prescribe—or it can demonstrate that Connecticut’s commitment to health care, patient autonomy, and medical judgment means something.
Take Action: Tell Yale to Prescribe
Yale New Haven Health needs to hear from us—and they need to hear from us now. Anyone can take action, including patients, parents and caregivers, family members, friends and allies.
Email Yale New Haven Health’s leadership and tell them to resume prescribing gender-affirming medications to transgender adolescents.
Address emails to:
Pamela Sutton-Wallace, MPH
President and Acting CEO
pamela.sutton-wallace@ynhh.org
Copy her executive assistant: elizabeth.gonsalves@ynhh.org
Margaret McGovern, MD, PhD
CEO, Yale Medicine
margaret.mcgovern@yale.edu
Clifford Bogue, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
clifford.bogue@yale.edu
Kimberlyl Troland
Deouty General Counsel, Health Affairs
kimberly.troland@yale.edu
Alexander E. Dreier
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
alexander.dreier@yale.edu
Ask them to:
- Resume providing clinically appropriate gender-affirming care to transgender adolescents.
- Keep medical decisions between patients, families, and qualified medical professionals.
- Refuse to let political pressure dictate the care Yale physicians provide.
- Work with Connecticut advocates and policymakers to protect access to care as federal funding restrictions take effect.
Yale New Haven Health’s leadership has publicly emphasized its commitment to patient-centered care, dignity, accountability, and compassion.
It’s time to hold them to those values.