A new congressional bill proposal seeks to improve healthcare coverage for detransitioners.
Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) introduced the Treatment and Restoration Uniformity and Transparency in Health Coverage (TRUTH in Coverage) Act, which would require health insurance companies that cover gender reassignment procedures to also cover sex-rejecting procedures for patients who experience complications from those procedures or who want to detransition.
The bill proposal defines sex-rejecting procedures as “any medical or surgical intervention for the purpose of attempting to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.”
Harshbarger’s bill proposal prevents insurance companies from imposing high deductibles and copays as well as extra cost-sharing or stricter treatment limitations on restorative care.
According to the bill, restorative care is “items and services furnished to an individual who has received any sex-rejecting procedure at any point during the individual’s lifetime to address, mitigate, monitor, treat, or reverse the harms, complications, and adverse effects of such
procedure, including interventions intended to restore, to the greatest extent practicable, healthy human form and functioning.”
The insurance requirements would pertain to plans starting January 1st, 2027, if the bill proposal becomes law.
The bill proposal does not require insurance companies to cover gender-transition procedures, which means these companies would not need to cover sex-rejecting procedures as well.
Furthermore, medical procedures for inter sex conditions, hormonal disorders, male circumcision, and treatment of diseases or injuries before the gender transition procedure are exempted from coverage under the bill proposal.
Harshbarger called it “outrageous that a health plan can cover sex-rejecting procedures but refuse to cover the restorative care patients need to address the harm they cause.”
“That’s not a fair deal for patients who want to restore healthy bodily function,” she said.
Harshbarger, who is a pharmacist, noted, “Patients should never be abandoned after undergoing life-altering, harmful medical interventions once reality sets in.”
“I’ve seen insurance companies find every excuse in the book to avoid paying for the care patients actually need. My TRUTH in Coverage Act restores fairness, promotes transparency, and ensures patients aren’t left paying the price for care their insurance should cover,” she added.
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), who introduced this bill’s companion legislation in the Senate, said Americans who have “undergone irreversible gender transition procedures” are regrettably “left with life-changing complications and nowhere to turn.”
“Insurance companies have been more than willing to profit by covering these procedures, but when patients need care to treat complications and restore healthy human function, they’re often left on their own. That’s wrong,” said Marshall, who is a physician.
“Patients deserve transparency before making life-altering medical decisions, and insurance companies should be consistent in their coverage when those decisions result in lifelong complications,” he added.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.
