by Laurel Duggan, The Daily Caller:
- Johns Hopkins Medicine is fighting for government-funded health coverage programs to cover transgender-related procedures it offers that are typically considered elective or cosmetic, including facial contouring and laser hair removal.
- The institution previously worked with Maryland legislators to draft a similar bill in 2022, and JHM and an employee will offer testimony in support of the bill’s newest draft this month, according to an email.
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- “These procedures are not cosmetic. They are not elective,” Dr. Helene Hedian, director of clinical education at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Transgender Health, wrote. “There are people who will challenge, confront, and even assault a person who doesn’t appear to fit neatly into a category of ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ … The sad truth is that when people are not immediately identifiable as transgender by their appearance or the sound of their voice by a malicious stranger on the street, they are safer.”
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) is lobbying Maryland to extend Medicaid coverage to transgender cosmetic procedures, which could financially benefit the university hospital system, according to an email reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Maryland’s Trans Health Equality Act would allow Medicaid to cover a variety of transgender procedures typically considered cosmetic, including changes to the voice, hair, face and neck and laser treatment for transgender surgical scars, as well as fertility preservation. Johns Hopkins leaders will give oral testimony to state legislators in support of the bill, in addition to JHM’s written testimony, according to a staff email previously published by journalist Andy Ngo; Johns Hopkins advocated for a similar bill in 2022.
“If enacted, the law would expand the types of medically necessary gender-affirming treatments that will be covered by Maryland Medicaid MCOs to include, inter alia, hair removal, body contouring, facial gender surgery, tracheal shave, vocal surgery, speech pathology, and fertility preservation,” the email read. “Additionally, the law would ensure that gender-diverse people, such as those who identify as nonbinary, intersex, or two-spirit, are included in coverage.”
JHM performs many of these procedures, according to its website, and the institution is eligible to provide care through Medicaid, Maryland Children’s Health Program and Primary Adult Care.
