Florida Targets Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth & Medicaid Users
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration took steps this week to prohibit doctors from providing medical care to transgender youth.
The governor’s name also appears on a new state report asserting Medicaid should not cover gender-affirming surgery for patients of any age.Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo requested the state Board of Medicine prohibit gender-affirming surgery for minors — which is a rare practice — along with certain other gender-affirming treatments.
His recommendation directly contradicts guidance from the Biden administration.“The Agency for Health Care Administration has conducted a full review to determine if these treatments are ‘consistent with generally accepted professional medical standards and not experimental or investigational,’” Ladapo wrote. “The Agency’s review included an overview of systematic reviews on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries, or a combination of interventions.”He acknowledges the American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations support gender-affirming health care but challenged their positions. “The scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extraordinarily weak,” Ladapo wrote.He encouraged Florida medical board to “establish a standard of care for these complex and irreversible procedures.“The current standards set by numerous professional organizations appear to follow a preferred political ideology instead of the highest level of generally accepted medical science.
Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine,” he wrote. “Otherwise, children and adolescents in our state will continue to face a substantial risk of long-term harm.”That, of course, is a different assessment than that of.
