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TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration moved forward Friday with a proposal that might deny Medicaid protection for treatments reminiscent of puberty-blocking treatment and hormone remedy for transgender individuals.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs a lot of the Medicaid program, revealed a proposed rule and set a July 8 listening to on the problem. National and state authorized and LGBTQ-advocacy teams have vowed to struggle the proposal.
The situation facilities on remedy for gender dysphoria, which the federal authorities defines as clinically “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.”
Under the proposed rule, the Medicaid program wouldn’t cowl puberty-blocking treatment, hormones and hormone “antagonists,” sex-reassignment surgical procedures and any “other procedures that alter primary or secondary sexual characteristics.”
The proposal, revealed Friday within the Florida Administrative Register, additionally would set up that such treatments do not meet a definition of “medical necessity.” That is essential as a result of, by legislation, providers supplied within the Medicaid program should be deemed medically mandatory.
The Agency for Health Care Administration on June 2 mentioned it might begin the rule-making course of and issued a report back to again denying protection of the treatments, which it mentioned have been “not consistent with generally accepted professional medical standards and are experimental and investigational.”
“Following a review of available literature, clinical guidelines and coverage by other insurers and nations, Florida Medicaid has determined that the research supporting sex reassignment treatment is insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety,” mentioned the report, which was signed by Medicaid director Tom Wallace.
But opponents blasted the company, saying that attempting to bar the treatments was a part of a broader push by Republicans to focus on transgender individuals. The launch of the report was adopted by state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo asking the Florida Board of Medicine to evaluate the company’s findings and “establish a standard of care for these complex and irreversible procedures.” The Board of Medicine regulates the state’s medical docs.
“Governor DeSantis’ agencies have misrepresented findings and distorted data to advance a political agenda, rather than relying on good science,” Jon Harris Maurer, public coverage director for the LGBTQ-advocacy group Equality Florida mentioned in a June 2 assertion. “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.”
Lambda Legal, the National Health Law Program, the Florida Health Justice Project and Southern Legal Counsel additionally vowed to struggle the proposal.
“Should AHCA (the Agency for Health Care Administration) follow through on its clear intent to engage in a sham rulemaking charade, rather than conduct a robust and substantive process that incorporates valid science and is not predetermined, we stand ready to defend the rights of transgender people in Florida, including the right to nondiscriminatory health care coverage,” the organizations mentioned in a press release.
The AHCA report mentioned Florida’s large Medicaid program has not had an “explicit policy” about masking such treatments. Other states have a combination of insurance policies, with some banning protection and others permitting it.
The proposed rule may in the end result in challenges earlier than a state administrative legislation decide. The July 8 listening to will probably be held at a Florida Department of Transportation auditorium in Tallahassee, in keeping with the information revealed Friday.
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