New Mexico, which is run by far-left Democrats in every place of state power, plans to keep paying for transgender-related medical services for minors even after the Trump administration’s new federal rule cuts off Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funding for such treatments.
The move means New Mexico taxpayers will be forced to continue footing the bill for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, sex-change counseling, speech therapy, body hair removal, and other gender-transition services for minors after federal dollars are pulled.
According to The Guardian, the Trump administration finalized the rule on Aug. 13, with the change set to take effect Oct. 13. The rule ends federal Medicaid and CHIP support for the procedures and services commonly described by left-wing activists as “gender-affirming care.”
But New Mexico is apparently not backing down.
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Health Care Authority “is planning to continue covering these services using state funds,” agency spokesman Timothy Fowler wrote in an email to the Santa Fe New Mexican, according to The Guardian.
That means the state is preparing to defy the federal shift by backfilling the money with state funds, keeping New Mexico on track as one of the Southwest’s most aggressive havens for transgender medical interventions on minors.
New Mexico already has a massive Medicaid and CHIP population. The Guardian reported that, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, New Mexico has the second-highest percentage of residents enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, with 41.4% of the state’s population on the programs. The outlet also cited KFF data showing 61% of New Mexico children are insured through Medicaid or CHIP.
That makes the Trump administration’s rule especially significant in New Mexico — and makes the state’s decision to keep paying with state money even more consequential for taxpayers.
The funding fight comes as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and legislative Democrats have worked to make New Mexico a refuge for abortion and transgender procedures while neighboring states move in the opposite direction.
In 2023, Democrats passed the so-called “Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act,” a law designed to shield abortion and transgender-related services from local restrictions. Since then, New Mexico has been promoted by the left as a destination for families seeking access to these services as other states enact protections for children.
The Guardian reported that families have relocated to New Mexico as protections for transgender-identifying youth have disappeared in neighboring states. The outlet also cited the Williams Institute at UCLA, which estimates that 4,800 transgender-identifying teenagers ages 13 to 17 live in New Mexico.
The same report described the services at issue as including “medical, social and psychological services,” such as puberty blockers, hormones including estrogen and testosterone, speech therapy, body hair removal and counseling.
Many New Mexicans argue those are not harmless political talking points, but life-altering interventions being pushed on children who are not old enough to vote, buy alcohol, or sign major legal contracts.
Far-left supporters claim the services are necessary. The Guardian wrote that major medical organizations support such care as medically necessary and lifesaving.
But the Trump administration’s rule represents a direct challenge to using federal taxpayer dollars for those services, especially when children are involved. New Mexico’s response is to shift the cost to state taxpayers instead.
The state has used this same playbook before.
Earlier this year, New Mexico announced it would use state money to cover the cost of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits for residents who purchase insurance on the state marketplace. At the time, Lujan Grisham defended the move as a response to Washington.
“We created the Health Care Affordability Fund for moments like this – when Washington fails to protect working families and the most vulnerable among us,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Now, the same state-first spending approach is being applied to transgender medical services for minors.
The difference is that this time, the issue is not just insurance premiums. It is whether New Mexico taxpayers should be required to fund sex-change-related interventions for children after the federal government has said Medicaid and CHIP dollars will no longer pay for them.
New Jersey also recently moved to fund such services through a new shield law, according to The Guardian.
But New Mexico’s situation is especially stark because so many children in the state are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. If the state continues covering the services with state-only dollars, the cost and controversy will remain squarely on New Mexico taxpayers.
Democrats will call it “health care.”
Parents and taxpayers may see something very different: a state government determined to keep New Mexico open for experimental and irreversible gender-transition interventions on minors, no matter what the federal government says.
Typical NM democrats, who promote and enforce evil policies, while laughing and presenting themselves as heroes. God’s justice is coming to NM soon, I believe.
I concur.
the scumbag democrats wont give us a tax break but they spend money on illegals and trans as if they are royalty. the democrat voter accepts it, cheers it on, and votes for more of it. Im tired of NM govt. we traditional americans are ignored and spit on by the democrat party. we are second class citizens. all dem politicians care about is that our taxes are sent in on time, or else. then we get attention. nothing is going to change here, because the dem voter is a basket case. the comments i have been reading on local social media concerning the governors race are so full of ignorance my head spins. Haaland voters rabid that she be elected, yet have no clue what her policies are. whoever runs against a democrat candidate is immediately branded as evil. 8 years of failure of MLG not enough for them.
So the democraps aren’t happy enough to kill babies before birth, now they want NM tax payers to have them mulated by transgender surgery. SURGERY , cutting and mutilation PEOPLE. Pain and suffering and trying to heal from something that wasn’t needed. And want taxpayers to pay for the evil and damage done to our children. SO EVIL, SANTANIC. The Democraps aren’t just going to He*LL, they are bringing He*ll to NM. God help us.
I have been saying this for a long time there is an evil spirit hovering over New Mexico. If people don’t realize this soon, we doomed State. To celebrate the murdering of babies in the womb up to birth. And then celebrating the fact that they are going to pay for transgender crap by mutilating our children, and parents are letting it happen, these parents are listening to the lies of Satan. God made two genders, a male and a female. If one born a male, they will not become a female and if you’re born a female, children are not going to become a male just because their parents encourage the lies of Satan that their children feel differently than they really are. And to get shots and mutilate a young child’s body is a sin beyond a sin. Parents that help their children get these injections and mutilation are just as sinful as the people who are promoting it and Doctor to perform it. Wow, they are guilty as hell as well. They all believe the lies of Satan. And when Jesus comes back, judgment day will be harsh for these evil people.
That includes parents who promoted it doctors who perform it, and the state legislatures who pull money from the state funds to provide this evilness, will be tossed into Lake of fire on judgment day. They better wake up ask for forgiveness repent change their ways before it’s too late.
And the people who vote for the evil people office should be ashamed of themselves.
God have mercy on us all
The New Mexico law means nothing.
Here’s what will happen.
Every New Mexico doctor, every nurse, every hospital or emergency care clinic employee found to be administering gender manipulation against the Federal ruling will be arrested, sent to Guantanamo or some other black site and tried before a military tribunal, and executed or put in prison.
That’s the bottom line, New Mexico.
Play STUPID games, win STUPID prizes.
All ya’all have a nice day now, ya’ hear.
Yep. You sure know Stupid!
@VIC, NM doesn’t even execute murderers, child abusers or drug dealers! What makes you think that medical professionals will ever be called up to defend their child deforming labors? You are OK with in womb murder, child deformation and supporting illegals? New York or California might be a better fit for you.
Has anyone noticed that in the Trump years it’s nearly impossible to get an appointment with a licensed “medical doctor?”
You only get to see a “physician’s assistant” or “nurse” ….rarely a doctor.
That’s because more than 12,000 doctors were arrested and taken off the earth plane because of the C-19 scam.
You don’t have to believe me. Do your homework.
If you’re implying that I’m “pro-abortion” you’re mistaken. Life starts at conception. Any abortion is murder.
Period.
And the “docktors” ….They’re gone, just like Beyonce, Epsteen, Biden, and “rap” music(?) …where did they all go?? (lol)
Poof…. GONE.
They were removed by US Marines and the Military Justice system. Gitmo is full. Guam is full. etc. Sorry to burst your bubble…. they’re GONE.
Not sure where you are located but here in ABQ NM we have a doctors shortage because of the high price (thanks to MLG’s administration) of Malpractice insurance. And I would not want a doctor who has been murdering babies in the womb and leaving those who are still alive, alone in a room to die.
If New Mexico can’t kill the babies in the womb they will kill their ability to reproduce by sterilization which is what sex changes are all about. The democrats lie about everything they do. From naming laws to sound reasonable like the affordable care act, we all know it’s not affordable, to saying sterilization is to “gender-affirming health care”. This sterilization is not gender affirming. Gender affirming was done at birth. They even want that changed too.
Definition of NM: a DEMONIC refuge for the mentally ill, abortion and transgender procedures ran by DEMONIC democrat politicians and medical staff.
I PRAY TO GOD TO BURN DOWN ALL OF COUNTIES RUN BY DEMOCRATS AFTER I MOVE TO TEXAS
Well, Texas is having struggles with Islam. They’ve invaded many cities in Texas like they have in Dearborn, Michigan, and Minnesota and other states. So you’ll be one city full of evil and ungodly people. Full of corruption to a state that’s fighting Islamic takeover. I guess you need to pick your battles. I’m praying for New Mexico in Texas and all the other states that are being invaded by the Muslims.
Texas is the new California. Paramount pictures is moving there along with JP Morgan our of NY. It’s been flooded with West Coast liberals.
Way to true. I know some of them. They take their evil ideas everywhere they go.
islam…the religion(?) of peace is one of mysoginy, pedophilia and murder as a mantra and method of control…little ladyboys and biological girls with an addadicktome (taxpayer funded) will be great toys for muuhomed and his gang…too bad you turned in your guns for starbucks at the “buyback”
I think if MLG had her way, we would go in to St Jude and ‘abort’ the kids with cancer. They can’t vote yet so not valuable lives…