gender dysphoria

The Agency for Health Care Administration, which largely oversees the Medicaid program, is using the money for legal and expert-witness fees in its push to ban Medicaid coverage for transgender treatments.

AHCA asked for “mental examinations” on a pair of 12-year-olds who are plaintiffs in a challenge to a state rule prohibiting Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care.

His administration is requiring state universities to provide information from the past five years about services they have provided to people with gender dysphoria.

State medical boards will host a joint public hearing on Feb. 10 in Tallahassee. Teens and their families seeking transgender care say they are confused and anxious about proposed restrictions.

There are procedural steps two state medical boards have to complete before the rules are finalized. But there have already been reports of disruptions to care, and some families say the stress is traumatizing.

The rules prohibit doctors from prescribing puberty-blocking, hormone and hormone “antagonist” treatments for patients under 18. The rules would not apply to children already receiving treatments.

Activists are campaigning against clinics that offer care for transgender teenagers. Some families worry that will only fuel efforts to ban gender-affirming care in their state.

Members of the Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted on a draft rule that would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming treatments to people younger than 18.

Trans patients say social support and hormone treatments are improving their overall well-being. And contrary to what some state officials claim, doctors insist they are not performing surgeries on young kids.

The judge said his ruling did not address what he called the crux of the case, which will be handled during a trial originally scheduled for August 2023 but likely will take place much earlier.