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By Michael Bielawski
A new bill in the House Healthcare Committee would make health insurance companies cover gender-affirming care at hospitals.
This bill is in the House Health Care Committee while the Trump Administration on Tuesday issued an executive order banning federal funds for healthcare facilities that continue with such procedures.
“This bill proposes to expand access to health insurance coverage for gender-affirming health care services,” it states. “It would also require health insurance plans and Vermont Medicaid to provide coverage for fertility-related services and direct the Agency of Human Services to seek federal approval of an amendment to Vermont’s Medicaid state plan to permit the Medicaid coverage.”
The bill is H. 55, its main sponsor is Rep. Troy Headrick, P/D-Burlington, and there are 11 more sponsors. There is also a companion bill with Headrick as the lead sponsor with 13 more sponsors. H. 56 is “to require the Department of Health to establish an emergency supply of essential medications for reproductive and gender-affirming care.”
H. 55 states that some of the “Medically necessary gender-affirming health care services” that would be supported would include “facial masculinization and feminization procedures” as well as “facial hair removal, such as laser hair removal or electrolysis.”
The bill further states that safeguards such as requiring the patient to limit treatment or get further consultation before a big decision will not be required. It says, “A health insurance plan shall not impose barriers to accessing gender-affirming health care services, such as mandating a specific duration of hormone therapy or requiring correspondence from more than one health care provider before authorizing gender-affirming surgery or other gender-affirming health care services.”
State Plan amendment?
According to the bill, the Vermont State Plan would have to be modified for this to become law. It states, “On or before September 1, 2025, the Agency of Human Services shall request approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to amend Vermont’s Medicaid state plan to include coverage for fertility-related services as set forth in Sec. 3 of this act.”
Risks federal funding
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order indicating that the federal government will not fund or support any kind of medical procedures concerning an attempt to change one’s sex.
Released on Tuesday, the policy called Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation states, “Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order gets into how the federal funds might be cut. It states, “The head of each executive department or agency that provides research or education grants to medical institutions, including medical schools and hospitals, shall, consistent with applicable law and in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
In addition to cutting off funds, it further states that numerous other actions may be taken against entities that continue with these procedures.
It states that the feds will “prioritize investigations and take appropriate action to end deception of consumers, fraud, and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by any entity that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”
House Health Care Committee Info
See all bills assigned to this committee here. Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions, and information at the following email addresses:
House Healthcare
Rep. Alyssa Black, Chair, ablack@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Francis McFaun, Vice Chair, fmcfaun@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Daisy Berbeco, Ranking Member, dberbeco@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Brian Cina, bcina@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Mari Cordes, Clerk, mcordes@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Wendy Critchlow, wcritchlow@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Allen “Penny” Demar, ademar@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Leslie Goldman, lgoldman@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Lori Houghton, LHoughton@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Woodman Page, wpage@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Debra Powers, dpowers@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at http://www.goldendomevt.com. The Committee meeting video is available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 42.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Legislation, Uncategorized
Medicaid…good luck with that.
What a waste of time ,energy and taxpayers money.
Vermont should focus on strengthening essential healthcare services rather than pushing costly, controversial mandates that risk both financial stability and medical integrity.
“Medically necessary gender-affirming health care services” Medically necessary ?
Why should the public, (insurance company rate payers) be responsible in any way for this ? It’s cosmetic surgery ! Do we pay for people to have tummy tucks, nose jobs or butt lifts ? Why should rate payers, who would never even think about these kinds of elective surgeries, pay higher rates ? It would seem to me that when it comes to elective cosmetic surgery the prospective patient should be responsible for a decision that they make solely because they would be more “comfortable” if they appeared to be of the opposite gender from which they were born ? It’s nothing but another woke gutter full of B.S. !
This mainly has to do with children. Not adults, including LGBT. (To add “reproductive” terminology is pretty sneaky… this isn’t about adult women having difficulty becoming pregnant.)
Adults may continue doing whatever they want to themselves, so long as they’re not breaking the law with whatever they’re doing, and pay out of pocket for it, just like anything else, ie: tattoos, body piercing, body augmentation (plastic surgery), etc.
I am stating this b/c a lot of activist types and “allies” believe this “threat” is against them, which it is not.
I do not think adults transitioning ought to be illegal. But I also don’t think it should be made a necessity in a way that would require insurance to foot the bill. One’s gender is not a cancer that needs to be removed. It’s not even a deviated septum that might be obstructing one’s breathing. It really is all in one’s head. That much is real, which could possibly use some therapy… and that’s exactly how it used to be handled, even if a transition was the end result of the therapy.
I remember when cosmetic surgery wasn’t paid for by the insurance companies.
Gender Affirming Care.
That’s Orwellian for
Childhood Genital Mutilation and Sterilization
How low we’ve fallen.
Headline fixed:
Vermont risks losing federal funds if “gender-affirming mutilation” bill passes 🩸
All of the sponsors of these bills should be voted out of office. The people need to speak up by eliminating the sources of these crazy progressive bills.
This makes me sick just reading this garbage in Vermont. There will be no federal funds for any of this and if the governor has a backbone he could prove it by a veto of this insanity.
Hold down the for Topper.
Is “gender-affirming care” anything like “abortion care?” Or like “medical” abortion pill?
Evil disguising itself as good by hijacking words.
Yes governor you could veto this bill because if the federal government will not fund it then who will be responsible for the bills, the Vermont taxpayers??? Yes and these patients will be lifelong patients having multiple surgeries, revisions of past surgeries, cosmetic surgeries to have masculine features toned down to look more feminine, shaving of Adam’s apples, laser removal of facial hair multiple times or having hairlines changed if a female wants to have male features so they will want cosmetic procedures to look more masculine because they all will relate it to their mental health condition. Absolutely nobody is trying to deal with the mental health condition of the patient who is unhappy with their body so they must need to change it!!! More consideration should be given to getting good mental health treatments from a truly gifted psychologist for these patients because according to stats more patients outgrow gender dysphoria if they just give it time.Does anybody care of what the puberty blockers or hormones are doing to patients??? Do they care they are sterilizing that patient or causing osteoporosis or cancer and that they have banned puberty blockers in London/Europe??? That they are lying to that patient/parents about these surgeries? Do you think the shield law will protect these doctors who perform these surgeries when they lie to their patients? Patients who are male at birth are never truly female—they don’t have uteruses so they can never enjoy giving birth. So they have breasts—but they dont have breast tissue or mammary glands and can breast feed. I really don’t see the need to keep their penises but having them removed and the penis is inverted and a vagina is fashioned out from it.
They only find out the patient is still not happy and whose fault is that!!! That’s when they want to detransition back and will need many more surgeries to try and coverup the body mutilation surgeries that were done previously—and some are not reversible so they are stuck in a body they hate. They are all unhappy and governor you could veto this bill to prevent it.
Question:
Is this just about Federal Monies?
This practice was prohibited to be performed on minors throughout the United States by an Executive Order signed by our United States President?
What are the consequences to Vermont Officials and/or the State of Vermont if this directive is ignored?