Florida considers a bill that would make it easier for health insurance to withhold treatment for transgender people. (Panuwat Dansunun/Getty)
Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it easier for health insurance companies to withhold gender-affirming care from transgender people.
House Bill 1639The bill, dubbed the Trans Erasure Act by LGBTQ+ advocates, does at least one of the following: 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills These have already been submitted to Florida's 2024 legislative session.
If passed, the bill would make it easier for health insurance companies to deny coverage for gender-affirming medical treatments such as hormone replacement therapy and surgery, further increasing barriers for transgender people to access life-saving medical care. It turns out.
House Bill 1639 would enforce this by requiring all health insurance companies that pay for gender reassignment treatment to cover “detransition” treatment. Insurers will also be required to cover treatment for gender dysphoria as a psychological problem rather than a physical health problem.
This was introduced with Congressman Dean Black and Congressman Doug Bankson. House Bill 1233aims to make it impossible for transgender people to change their gender on official documents.
The bill would do this by prohibiting Florida from issuing driver's licenses or other forms of identification that list a gender different from the one listed on the original birth certificate.
At a House hearing on Monday (January 22), Rep. Bankson said the primary motivation behind HB 1639 was to ensure that detransition is “more easily covered.” Ta.
But as an activist and independent journalist erin reed In our coverage of Monday's hearing, we noted that the bill actually does not do much to improve access to detransition care.
Rather, it simply states that health insurance may not cover gender reassignment care prescriptions or procedures unless they also cover pre-transition treatment.
Not only that, but the bill also requires that health insurance policies that cover gender-affirming care must also cover conversion therapy.
The bill reads: “No health insurance policy issued or issued to an individual within the state may prohibit coverage of mental health or treatment services to treat the individual's perception that his or her gender does not correspond to…his or her sex at birth.'' ” by confirming the gender of the insured person. ”
Asked about this provision during Monday's hearing, Rep. Bankson argued that “people who want the option of undergoing conversion therapy should have that option.”
Rep. Bankson said during the hearing that HB 1639 is intended to expand health insurance coverage, but activists say it would give health insurance providers the option to completely eliminate coverage of gender-affirming medical care. He warns that this will only have the opposite effect.
Advocacy groups such as Equality Florida and LGBTQ+ activists have strongly opposed this recent wave of anti-LGBTQ+ House bills.
Last Tuesday (January 16), hundreds of people gathered outside the Florida State Capitol to denounce both bills and others like them that attack and potentially endanger their rights. did.
“What you all did in this session, and the actions of my fellow Floridians, will go down in history. Pause for a moment and ask yourself why we are being taught to hate our neighbors.”Equality “Florida's Executive Director Nadine Smith said: WFSU.
“This is the moment when we say enough is enough.”
