Governor Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 163, a law that mandates all insurance companies, including Medicaid, cover affirming care for gender dysphoria and gender incongruence for minors and adults on Mon., Jun. 12.
The new law requires health insurance companies and Medicaid to cover treatment, including sex-change surgery, relating to gender dysphoria and gender incongruence for adults and minors (less than 18 years of age). It also prohibits “insurers from engaging in certain discrimination based on gender identity or expression.”
Under the law, “medical providers,” including speech-language pathologists and social workers, can prescribe gender-affirming care. A minor must also provide a written expression of the desire to undergo the treatment after only six months of showing a “strong desire” to be treated as the opposite gender assigned by birth.
Estimates at the time of passage showed the cost to Nevada taxpayers would be under $5 million. Those costs will increase as the price associated with gender-affirming care will be expansive due to the number of minors identifying as transgender, and the costs of treatment and surgery are continuous due to surgery-related complications. Additionally, it does not include a religious exemption for medical providers or small businesses that may have objections to providing treatment or insurance.
Considering this bill failed to get one Republican vote in the Senate or Assembly, it is unlikely that his Republican colleagues and their constituents, who now face higher insurance premiums and taxes, are pleased with how the Governor “gets shit done.”
The Old Blog in the Desert 