Switching genders is expensive. But low-income children in Pennsylvania are covered under medical assistance through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Pennsylvania taxpayers have unknowingly paid more than $16 million under Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to fund sex reassignment and gender transition services for children.
Each year since 2015, when Wolf took office, state spending on childhood sex change treatments has increased, data obtained by the Pennsylvania Family Institute shows.
In 2015, Pennsylvania paid $78,000 for services related to sex reassignment for children under 18. In 2021, the state spent $3.9 million.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (PA DHS) provided data to the Pennsylvania Family Institute through a Right to Know request seeking records reflecting the amount of money Pennsylvania has spent for minors through CHIP to receive “services related to sex reassignment and transition related services and drugs, from 2015 to present.”
Taxpayer Funded Treatments
The data includes basic codes and descriptions for each treatment, but it’s unclear how many treatments were used for each patient, so the total number of minors who received the medications and procedures is unknown.Treatments listed in the data include androgenic agents, which are used in the transition from female to male; and estrogenic agents, which are feminizing hormones powerful enough to cause a male to develop breasts.
Some girls were given Yuvafem, a vaginal insert tablet used to reduce symptoms of menopause, and Estring, another menopause insert in the form of a flexible ring that continuously releases estrogen. The Estring safety indications include a warning that using the product may increase the chance of developing dementia, and that estrogens should be used at the lowest dose possible and only for as long as needed.
Many treatments are hormones in the form of gels, creams, patches, and pills normally used for women in menopause and post-menopause. Others are testosterone replacements, normally used in men who don’t make enough on their own.
All are being prescribed for off-label use.
“Since no drugs are specifically for sex reassignment or transition related services, pharmacy claims were only included where the recipient had a previous gender identity disorder diagnosis or personal history of sex reassignment diagnosis within the specified service dates,“ the PA DHS said in a note included in the answer to the Right to Know request. ”Data is limited to recipients aged 18 and younger.”
Homeless Kids Get Gender Treatment
During a Pennsylvania House Health Committee hearing, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) gender clinic co-founder Nadia Dowshen testified that her clinic receives referrals from foster care and homeless shelters.“We’re really getting referrals from a variety of resources,” Dowshen testified. “We’re getting a lot more referrals from institutions and other youth serving professionals working with youth in other capacities, sometimes from within the foster care system, or the mental health system, or through homeless shelters for youth who are in need of support.”
In another presentation, Dowshen praised Dr. Rachel Levine, calling the former Pennsylvania secretary of health “a wonderful advocate ... doing amazing work to make sure young people have coverage of these medications.”
Levine is a transgender individual who served in Pennsylvania until President Joe Biden appointed Levine as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Levine is a former professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and a longtime advocate of “gender affirming care,” which includes puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries with life-altering consequences for children and adolescents who want to change their bodies and live as the opposite sex.
Gender affirming care in children is controversial because many treatments are irreversible, and decisions about medically managing gender in childhood are made before a child’s brain is fully developed.
“When Gov. Wolf took office, he unilaterally changed state policy to cover things like double mastectomies to remove healthy breasts from minor girls and irreversible experimental hormones for children,” Emily Kreps of Pennsylvania Family Institute said in a statement. “The same drugs used to chemically castrate convicted sex offenders are being funded by tax dollars for minors.”
The transgender industry seems to be driven equally by monetary profit and the radical gender ideology that makes it possible, she said.
