Republican South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson will introduce legislation Tuesday to bar healthcare entities from using some federal dollars to subsidize sex change surgeries and hormone replacement therapies.
Johnson’s No 340B Savings for Transgender Care Act would prohibit healthcare entities from using savings under the 340B drug pricing program to offer free or discounted sex change procedures to uninsured or low-income Americans. The legislation would ensure that healthcare entities are not pushing left-wing gender ideology with savings derived from participation in the program, according to background on the bill obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Congress created the 340B program in 1992 to stretch eligible healthcare entities’ federal dollars by requiring drug manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell discounted drugs to eligible healthcare entities, which allows them to use the derived savings to provide additional services and expand healthcare access. Some healthcare entities in blue states, such as Howard Brown Health in Chicago, Illinois, have publicized that they use their 340B savings on sex-altering procedures, including “hormone therapy, group therapy and gender-affirming surgical navigation.”
Between 2018 and 2023, 16 states funneled more than $165 million in funding to so-called “gender-transition services,” including so-called puberty blockers and sex change surgeries.
Sex-altering procedures are especially expensive for uninsured patients, ranging from up to $15,000 for just genital reconstruction, to $50,000 for genital reconstruction, facial alteration and breast removal, according to the DCNF’s previous reporting.
Individuals who undergo sex-change procedures will also need to remain on hormone replacement therapy for the remainder of their life, which can cost as much as $1,500 per year.
“The federal government should not be subsidizing hormone therapies and gender altering surgeries when our nation faces significant health crises,” according to background on the bill shared with the DCNF.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration and Democratic-led states oversaw a massive increase in taxpayer-funded child sex-change procedures, the DCNF previously learned.
“Transgender surgeries do not qualify as essential, life-saving health care,” Johnson told the DCNF. “Low- income families and rural communities rely on programs like 340B for their health care. Ensuring these dollars are spent where they are needed the most will keep the program sustainable and as effective as possible to help those in need.”
“[T]his crucial program has been hijacked to fund and promote dangerous and elective procedures disguised as ‘gender-affirming care’ – including chemical and surgical castration,” Riley Gaines, host of the Gaines for Girls podcast and women’s sports advocate, told the DCNF. “This blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars diverts resources away from the program’s true mission: addressing urgent health needs and fighting real public health crises.”
The bill is cosponsored by Republican Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, Michael Rulli of Ohio, Austin Scott of Georgia, Mike Ezell of Mississippi, Barry Moore of Alabama, John Rose of Tennessee and Dan Crenshaw of Texas.
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