Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told state Medicaid directors Friday there will be no Medicaid funding for “gender reassignment” surgeries or hormone treatments for minors.
“As a doctor and now CMS Administrator, my top priority is protecting children and upholding the law. Medicaid dollars are not to be used for gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments in minors – procedures that can cause permanent, irreversible harm, including sterilization,” Oz said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart News.
“We have a duty to ensure medical care is lawful, necessary, and truly in the best interest of patients. CMS will not support services that violate this standard or place vulnerable children at risk. It is a CMS responsibility to steward Medicaid dollars and ensure resources focus on protecting our most vulnerable,” he continued.
Oz wrote to state Medicaid directors to ensure that state Medicaid agencies are “aware of growing evidence regarding certain procedures offered to children, and to remind states of their responsibility to ensure that Medicaid payments are consistent with quality of care and that covered services are provided in a manner consistent with the best interest of recipients.”
The recently confirmed administrator to CMS noted that medical interventions to cure one of gender dysphoria — including puberty blockers, surgeries to transform one’s physical appearance, surgeries to remove an individual’s sexual organs, and sex hormones to align one’s appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex –have “proliferated.”
The CMS administrator noted that there is dearth of evidence supporting these controversial medical procedures to treat gender dysphoria for minors, and noted that these interventions can “cause long-term and irreparable harm”:
Several developed countries have recently diverged from the U.S. in the way they treat gender dysphoria in children. The United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland have recently issued restrictions on the medical interventions for children, including the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments, and now recommend exploratory psychotherapy as a first line of treatment and reserve hormonal interventions only for exceptional cases. In particular, the “Cass Review,” an independent review of the evidence in the United Kingdom, noted that despite the considerable research in the field of gender dysphoria in children, “systematic evidence reviews demonstrated the poor quality of the published studies, meaning there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices.”
Given the lack of evidence for these procedures for children, Oz reminded state Medicaid directors of the federal Medicaid requirements that bar federal funding of services “whose purpose is to permanently render an individual incapable of reproducing. Federal financial participation (FFP) is strictly limited for procedures, treatments, or operations for the purpose of rendering an individual permanently incapable of reproducing and, under 42 C.F.R. 441.253(a), is specifically prohibited for such procedures performed on a person under age 21.”
“Other advanced nations are rethinking these types of interventions – which in the U.S. can cost up to $134,000 according to recent research. Like them, we believe psychotherapy, not life-altering drugs, or surgery, should be the first line of treatment. This isn’t about politics or stigma. It’s about protecting people from decisions they may not fully understand, and consequences they can’t undo,” Oz concluded in his statement.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
