Taxpayers in San Francisco, California will now pay for “gender-switching,” transgender surgeries to “help ease the mental anguish of people who feel they are trapped in bodies of the wrong gender.” These operations will be covered under San Francisco’s universal health care program for the uninsured.
The San Francisco Health Commission on Tuesday approved of these controversial operations; public health officials in the city and transgender rights advocates discussed how they could get procedures such as mastectomies and genital reconstruction surgery covered under San Francisco’s universal health care system for individuals who consider themselves transgender.
These measures were approved even though San Francisco, under current Mayor Ed Lee, has had to slash local services and increase the local tax burden on residents to cover the city’s record $7 billion budget for the last fiscal year.
Kristina Wertz, program director for the Transgender Law Center, said “all Americans” should be able to receive taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries.
“That’s why we applaud San Francisco’s decision to allow transgender people the ability to receive the medical care they need to be healthy,” Wertz proclaimed.
Thomas Moyer, a San Francisco resident who authored “A Conservative Survival Guide To San Francisco,” said San Francisco taxpayers could not foot the bill for transgender surgeries.
“Taxpayers cannot afford this, as there are unintended costs and unintended consequences unrelated to the actual surgery, such as their longer-term hormone treatment, psychology needs and other longer term health issues,” Moyer said.