Legislative Committee is Next Stop for Proposed Medicaid Rule Regarding Coverage for “Gender Reassignment”

The Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR) will consider at its October 19 meeting a rule proposed by the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that would make “gender reassignment” a covered service for minors and adults under New Hampshire’s Medicaid program.

The meeting on Thursday, October 19, is open to the public. It will be held at 9 a.m. in rooms 306-308 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. Contact information for members is at the end of this post.

Here are the issues.

• DHHS sent out two letters to participants in New Hampshire Healthy Families (a Medicaid program) announcing that “gender reassignment” would be covered as of July 1. The first of these letters went out in July, long before DHHS held a public hearing about amending Medicaid rules to allow payment for such procedures.
• The first letter went to children before parents.
• Taxpayers are about to be on the hook for “gender reassignment” surgery and related procedures, including irreversible body alteration for minors. DHHS, through its letters to NH Healthy Families participants, is acting like this is a done deal.
• Transgender activists are pushing hard for this policy change.
• The proposed rule will result in taxpayers’ forced involvement in sex change procedures, even as some families find that their children’s medications for chronic conditions are not covered by the same health insurance program.
• Will the state cover gender reassignment without coverage limits?This not a single surgical procedure, but rather an ongoing series of procedures and hormone treatments.
• Will the state cover reversals when a person who has submitted to “gender reassignment” has a change of heart?
• Litigation is inevitable – also at taxpayer expense – since at least one federal appeals court has ruled that Medicaid need not cover transgender procedures, while DHHS seems to be asserting that coverage is required on nondiscrimination grounds.

Contacting the Committee

Please contact members including alternates (noted as “alt.”) with brief and courteous messages letting them know that you as a taxpayer choose not to be involved in anyone’s choice to undergo “gender reassignment.”