Texas GOP Wants to Make Gender Surgery So Expensive Doctors Can't Afford It
Senate Bill 1029 would, if enacted, make private health benefit plans liable for the costs associated with lifetime care of the patient or any malpractice suits that result as "consequences" of gender modification treatments or procedures covered by the plan, even if there are no medical complications associated with the initial surgery."This would just simply say that if you're going to transition someone, then you're going to have to assume the responsibility to take care of them," Hall said Tuesday during debate on the bill.But it also forbids all public insurance plans from covering gender-affirming care, not just for children but for people of all ages, while putting doctors on the hook for all liability tied to their surgeries, creating an environment critics say makes gender-affirming care too risky for doctors to perform.Critics of the bill say the legislation—part of a wave of anti-trans bills around the country—is nothing more than an effort to price the transgender community out of existence."So much of what we're hearing from the lawmakers who are filing these bills is that they want to 'protect kids,' but this is because it's not about our kids at all.
It's just about erasing trans people," Jonathan Gooch, communications director for the advocacy group Texas Equality, told Newsweek. "I think that's really unique about this one."The bill is part of a larger slate of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the Texas state legislature this session.
But it also comes at a time of increasing hostility from Texas conservatives against the LGBTQ+ community.Last summer, The Texas GOP denied Log Cabin Republicans—an LGBTQ+ caucus of the GOP—from having a booth at the state convention.
