invoice: Senate Bill 1029
Submitted by: Bob Hall, Republican, Senate, 2nd District (Rockwall)
What does it do: Hall’s bill would make health insurers and providers liable if they offer “gender-change procedures or treatments” for adult patients as defined by the law. These treatments include surgery such as castration, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty, as well as more common procedures such as hysterectomy, mastectomy, and vasectomy, but also gender-affirming care. provided to transgender patients seeking The bill also includes drugs that block puberty (usually given to transgender youth, not adults) and non-surgical treatments such as estrogen and testosterone therapy.
The measure would provide insurers and/or providers of such treatment with the costs associated with reversing a gender change procedure or treatment that would result in a patient’s lifetime. You will be held financially responsible for health and drug costs. of a gender change procedure or treatment. It will also enable physicians who provide such treatments to respond to malpractice claims from patients.
This bill could effectively end gender-affirming care for adults in Texas. The way Hall’s bill works is different than the way the Abortion Prevention Act of 2021, SB 8 works. SB 8 opened health care providers to litigation for health care offerings, which could have similar effects.The threat of potential financial liability has proven to be a sufficient deterrent to effectively prohibit proceedings, even though the text of the law may not entirely preclude such conduct. Health facilities and insurance companies have become risk-averse in the wake of the Texas abortion ban, and some abortion patients are can’t receive Donors perform dilation and curettage procedures out of fear that they may not meet the life-saving or “major bodily function impairment” exceptions to the ban. Hall’s bill, if passed, would create a huge financial liability for doctors who perform mastectomy as a “sex reassignment” treatment, for example, and would not allow doctors to transgender people who want surgery to eliminate the risk of breast cancer. Patients may be reluctant to have a mastectomy. .
Republicans in Texas have introduced a series of bills in previous and current Congresses targeting gender-affirming care for minors, which Hall previously introduced in November 2 , which is the first attempt to create new legislation to address such interventions on adults. Hall’s bill includes a provision explaining why senators feel this is necessary.I mean, he’s talking about how doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee Gender-affirming surgical procedures bring in more income From outpatient procedures. From that, Hall concludes in his bill: You can receive it by offering those treatments. ”
Health care experts object to the logical leap that the bill and similar bills make, arguing that these procedures are revenue-generating and therefore “not in the best interest of the patient’s health.”Last year, Associate Dean of Admissions at Brown University Alpert School of Medicine told Inside Higher Ed “Anyone who works in a hospital environment knows that there is a budget, that costs and expenditures are considered, and that more resources are spent on programs that bring in more money,” he said, noting that this is simply a ” She compared the scenario told by Vanderbilt Hospital administrators to how cardiovascular centers make more money from surgeries than outpatients. This does not mean that heart surgery is also not in the patient’s best interest.
Is it possible that the bill will pass? While it is possible, it is not the most likely way to get legislation aimed at transgender Texans. It’s part of the Republican playbook on the issue. “Ending child gender change” is one of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities, and Hall’s bill doesn’t fit. within the framework. Senators also introduced two laws that specifically address health care for transgender minors. SB 249, which defines certain procedures as illegal “genital mutilation,” and SB 250, which revokes the medical licenses of physicians who provide certain transsexual treatments. Minors (In the last session, Hall made a similar bill. Passed in the Senate but lost in the House).
Any of these new bills could encounter the same opposition that prevented Hall’s previous bill from passing in 2021. can have serious financial costsbecause businesses and workers may choose to do business in states where they and their children are free to seek medical care. American Medical Association RecommendationsEven if these concerns do not prevent the passage of legislation targeting transgender minors and their families, introducing new legislation that prevents access to health care sought by consenting adults would be a threat to this session. It can be a bridge that has gone too far.
