Federal Employees Challenge Ban on Gender-Affirming Care Coverage in Health Insurance
On January 1, 2026, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation filed a complaint on behalf of federal employees challenging a recent Office of Personnel Management (OPM) policy that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs, including those covering federal employees and United States Postal Service (USPS) workers.
The OPM announced in August that its policy bars coverage for both chemical and surgical modifications of sex traits through medical interventions within federal employee and USPS health plans. The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), argues that this denial of coverage constitutes sex-based discrimination and seeks to rescind the policy.
Four current federal workers from the State Department, Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service provide testimonies as part of the complaint. One example highlights a postal worker whose daughter requires puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy; under the new policy, these treatments would not be covered.
The complaint represents the plaintiffs as well as a class of similarly situated federal employees. Advocates behind the complaint assert that the policy is not motivated by concerns over cost or quality of care but is intended to drive transgender people and their spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce.
This legal challenge follows actions by the administration in December, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed policies aimed at blocking gender-affirming care for minors and barring Medicare and Medicaid funding to hospitals that provide such care to children. Senior administration officials, including HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., have publicly described gender-affirming care for minors as malpractice.
These restrictions, however, run counter to the recommendations of major medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which support gender-affirming care.
