Gov and Mrs. Pritzker featured at Equality IL Gala
CHICAGO – Illinois taxpayers will not only fund through Medicaid women's abortions, they will now pay for sex reassignment surgeries. It's a public policy Governor JB Pritzker signed into place last Friday. What many have for decades considered cosmetic, elective surgery, Governor Pritzker has now obligated taxpayers to pay for such surgeries because, he says, the procedures are cost-saving, life-saving and "just the right thing to do."
Coverage for these procedures serve to prevent negative health impacts – such as depression and suicide, a statement from Prtizker's office said. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia offer these services and have not reported significant cost increases despite the new mandate. About 1,400 of Illinois’ 3.1 million Medicaid members are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, IL News reports. Last year, about 2,500 prescriptions for hormone therapy were covered.
“Expanding Medicaid to cover gender affirming surgeries is cost effective, helps avoid long term health consequences, and most importantly is the right thing to do," Pritzker said in a statement issued Friday. "With continued attacks coming from Washington, this administration will always stand with our transgender community and their right to lead safe and healthy lives.”
The "attacks from Washington" Pritzker mentioned include the Trump Administration's recent decision to ban transgenders from enlisting in the U.S. military, despite some 13,000 already serving.
"The Trump administration’s policies harm transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people across our society: from those serving our country in the military to those in federal prisons," ACLU Illinois attorney Carolyn Wald, said at a recent Cook County Board hearing. "The ACLU continues to partner with transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people, community-based organizations, and other advocates to put a stop to these brazen discriminatory attacks. We are heartened by the many courageous people we’ve had the privilege to work with in this fight. We must stand together to reject these attacks on our community."
But the transgender community is near and dear to Governor Pritzker's family – and could be part of the reason the governor took on this issue. Chicago Republican donor, billionaire Jennifer Pritzker is the governor's first cousin. Once James Pritzker, now known as Jennifer, she wrote a commentary in the Washington Post earlier this year in reaction to the Administration's position on transgenders in the military:
As a man, Jennifer Pritzker served in several different military capacities, and after retiring from the military in 2001, built the Pritzker Military Museum in Chicago.
But what does the American Society of Plastic Surgeons have to say about the newly-mandated taxpayer surgery now paid for by Illinois taxpayers? Is "gender-affirming surgery" an elective, cosmetic procedure, or one that is life-saving and necessary for a person on Medicaid? The state of Illinois was already funding hormonal therapy for transgenders. This surgery mandate adds financial burden onto Illinois taxpayers in a time when the state is already over $130 billion in debt.
A 2017 report on the Society's website Alexis Laungani, MD and Pierre Brassard, MD, leaves the question open – but sympathetic to persons diagnosed as "gender dysphoric". The doctors suggests a person with gender dysphoria could be considered as being born with a birth defect when his or her sex organs don't match his or her "true gender":
Even though appearing physically intact, the gender dysphoric patient wears the mask of a gendered body he/she/they do(es) not assimilate to, which provides a mismatch between society expectation and self-feeling. For the sole purpose of dichotomy, the transgender patient could be considered as having a birth defect by not having a body envelope corresponding to their true gender. Gender confirmation (also called sex reassignment) with hormones, mental therapy, and surgical transition, has been shown to relieve symptoms of gender dysphoria and to provide patients with a regained socialization in their true gender, as opposed to their gender assigned at birth.
As a society and more specifically as a scientific community, it is our role to provide guidelines for interpretation and to publish appropriately in the “cosmetic” versus “reconstructive” sections of peer-reviewed journals, based on our knowledge and expertise. We do believe that it is crucial to recognize gender confirmation surgical procedures as reconstructive and classify/publish them accordingly. The alternative would consider a life-changing operation as purely cosmetic and could threaten the insurance coverage for our patients in the long term. Furthermore, it perpetrates the wrong idea that being gender dysphoric is a choice and that undergoing medical, psychiatric, and surgical therapy is a chosen way to enhance one’s physical appearance.
In light of this new taxpayer-funded surgery, a question arises: how many other types of cosmetic surgeries will taxpayers be required to subsidize in the future?
UPDATE: DOWNSTATE REP HOPES TO BLOCK PRITZKER PLAN TO FUND GENDER REASSIGNMENT SURGERY
