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Press Release:

Law­suit Chal­leng­ing Trump Admin­is­tra­tion Rule

Preceding Event:

Con­gress enact­ed the Afford­able Care Act (ACA) in 2010 with the goal of insur­ing more peo­ple and mak­ing insur­ance more afford­able. Annu­al enroll­ment on the ACA mar­ket­places have dou­bled in the past 5 years, serv­ing over 24 mil­lion peo­ple sign­ing up for health insur­ance cov­er­age in the 2025 plan year.

With only four months until enroll­ment in the plans began, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s Admin­is­tra­tion’s Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices enact­ed new rules and restric­tions on enroll­ment. Accord­ing to the press release from July 17, 2025, “The final rule by HHS would make sub­stan­tial changes and bureau­crat­ic bar­ri­ers to the oper­a­tion of the ACA mar­ket­places, includ­ing adding new ver­i­fi­ca­tion require­ments, impos­ing an auto­mat­ic month­ly charge on all auto­mat­i­cal­ly reen­rolled con­sumers who qual­i­fy for $0 pre­mi­ums, short­en­ing the open enroll­ment peri­od for sign­ing up for health cov­er­age, and mak­ing oth­er changes which will make cov­er­age less afford­able for mil­lions of indi­vid­u­als nation­wide. The final rule would also exclude gen­der-affirm­ing care as an {Essen­tial Health Ben­e­fit} on fed­er­al exchange plans, leav­ing states respon­si­ble for pay­ing for the por­tion of insur­ance pre­mi­ums attrib­ut­able to any such cov­er­age.”

The suit argues the rule “is arbi­trary and capri­cious, con­trary to law, and vio­lates the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dure Act.”

General Overview:

Accord­ing to the release from July 17, “Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong today joined a mul­ti­state coali­tion fil­ing a law­suit chal­leng­ing an unlaw­ful final rule from the U.S. Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices (HHS) and Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices (CMS) that would cre­ate sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers to obtain­ing health­care cov­er­age under the Afford­able Care Act (ACA).”

In the law­suit, the attor­neys gen­er­al argue that the HHS and CMS rule is arbi­trary and capri­cious, con­trary to law, and vio­lates the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dure Act (APA). The coali­tion is also seek­ing pre­lim­i­nary relief, and a stay, to pre­vent the chal­lenged por­tions of the final rule from tak­ing effect in the Plain­tiff States before the August 25 effec­tive date.”

Date of filing:

July 17, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-12019

Case title:

State of Cal­i­for­nia, et al. v. Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices et al.

Plaintiffs: 20 states

• STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,
• STATE OF NEW JERSEY,
• STATE OF ARIZONA,
• STATE OF COLORADO,
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT,
• STATE OF DELAWARE,
• STATE OF ILLINOIS,
• STATE OF MAINE,
• STATE OF MARYLAND,
• STATE OF MICHIGAN,
• STATE OF MINNESOTA,
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO,
• STATE OF NEVADA, STATE OF NEW YORK,
• STATE OF OREGON,
• JOSH SHAPIRO, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Gov­er­nor of the Com­mon­wealth of Penn­syl­va­nia,
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND,
• STATE OF VERMONT,
• STATE OF WASHINGTON,
• STATE OF WISCONSIN

Defendants:

• ROBERT F. KENNEDY, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Sec­re­tary of Health and Human Ser­vices,
• MEHMET OZ, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Admin­is­tra­tor for the Cen­ters for Medicare and Med­ic­aid Ser­vices,
• U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,
• U.S. CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Status as of Dec. 1:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 3, 2025

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