ABOVE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Photo via DeSantis’ Facebook page.
TALLAHASSE | A report issued by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration June 2 labeled healthcare services for transgender youth for the treatment of gender dysphoria – i.e., reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and puberty blockers – as being not consistent with “widely accepted professional medical standards” and are experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long term affects.
The agency, which mainly deals with health policy and planning entity for Florida. Additionally it has primary responsibility for the state’s estimated $25.2 billion Medicaid program, the licensure of the state’s 48,500 health care facilities and the sharing of health care data through the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis.
In April, the Florida Department of Health, FDOH, released its guidance regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria for children and adolescents in the state, taking extreme exception to the federal guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,” said State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. “It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children. Children experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported by family and seek counseling, not pushed into an irreversible decision before they reach 18.”
FDOH requested that Florida Medicaid program review whether treatments are consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards, which was completed on June 2, 2022.
Based on that report, Equality Florida, the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBTQ+ community responded.
“Governor DeSantis’ administration is once again using Pride month to target the LGBTQ community,” said Equality Florida Public Policy Director Jon Harris Maurer. “This time it is a crusade to deny Floridians their freedom to access healthcare. Governor DeSantis’ agencies have misrepresented findings and distorted data to advance a political agenda, rather than relying on good science. This is yet another state agency being used to launch an overt attack on transgender Floridians. The transgender community, like all people, shouldn’t have their access to basic, medically necessary, and often life-saving care stripped away by extremist politicians hoping to stoke right-wing fervor. Florida should put public health over politics.”
“The nonbinding guidance in the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration report stands in direct contradiction to decades of research, and the overwhelming consensus of doctors and pediatricians. The data on gender-affirming care is anything but ambiguous: a 2021 peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project — involving more than 9,000 trans and nonbinary youth — found that receiving gender-affirming care was associated with nearly 40% lower odds of recent depression and a past-year suicide attempt among those under 18,” said Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project.
“Gender-affirming care can save lives. Restricting access to this live-saving treatment will only further marginalize trans and nonbinary young people who already experience too many barriers to receiving healthcare. Healthcare decisions should be made by parents and pediatricians, not bureaucrats. To those transgender and nonbinary youth watching tonight — know that you aren’t alone. You have the same right to safe, medically-necessary care you had yesterday. You have the right to report anyone who tries to deny it. You have the right to be exactly who you are, which is exactly who you’re supposed to be.”
