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State Sen. Michele Brooks of Pennsylvania and State Rep. Jeff Leach of Texas
One bill requiring this is awaiting the governor's signature in Texas, while a Pennsylvania legislator is proposing a similar measure.
Lawmakers in some states are seeking to require Medicaid and private insurers to cover detransition procedures if they cover gender-affirming care for transgender people.
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LGBTQ+ advocates warn that such requirements would increase the costs for insurers and lead many to stop covering gender-affirming care. Detransitioning is extremely rare.
Last week, the Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1257, which would mandate that insurers cover detransitioning. It has already passed the Senate and is awaiting anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature.
The Texas bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jeff Leach, “said he’s heard of Texans receiving gender transition treatment with insurance coverage, but later being denied coverage when they are dealing with adverse effects,” public broadcaster WERA reports.
Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas, speaking at a rally against the bill, called it a “tax on trans existence,” according to WERA.
Austin resident Corrie Thompson testified against the measure earlier in the legislative session. “Requiring unknowable and limitless liability for any possible adverse impacts from trans health care will, practically speaking, prevent most insurers from covering the care.” It could “drive excessive and inflated costs for plans that do insure trans health care,” she added.
Democratic Rep. Gene Wu, who opposed the bill, said it’s a back-door way to ban gender-affirming care for trans adults; the state has already banned it for trans minors. He also noted that transition regret is rare. One study has indicated only about 1 percent of patients regret it. “There is higher rates of regret for just about any other type of surgery,” he said.
In Pennsylvania, Republican Sen. Michele Brooks said she will soon propose legislation calling for detransition coverage. “Regardless of one’s views on transgender drugs or surgeries, there should be no disagreement on providing access to detransition care for those that need it,” she wrote in a Thursday memo to her fellow senators. “If state or private payers funded transition, they must also fund reversal.”
She cited a recent paper from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services citing studies that put transition regret rates at 5 percent to 25 percent. The report asserts that the issue of detransition “has been minimized with the claim that detransition and regret rates are vanishingly low. In fact, the detransition rate is unknown.” However, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is anti-trans, as is his boss, Donald Trump.
A similar bill was proposed in Florida last year but did not pass.
