At least 20 states, including Missouri, Florida, and Texas, only provide a small portion of transgender adolescents with gender-affirming medical care.
These three states are also among those that forbid Medicaid, the government-sponsored health insurance program for low-income individuals, from covering important components of such care for patients of all ages.
Trans Adults Relocating For Better Environments
In a study conducted by KFF and The Washington Post in the latter part of last year, more than a quarter of trans adults indicated they had relocated to a new area, city, or state in search of greater acceptance.
More motivation is provided by the current restrictions on health care and the potential for more ones in the future.
Many people are moving to states that are sanctuaries because they are enacting laws to promote the care of trans people.
For instance, California passed a law last October to shield anyone who receives or offers gender-affirming care from legal action.
And now, according to Scott Nass, a family physician and transgender care authority located in the state, physicians in California are receiving an increase in inquiries from patients looking to move there in order to avoid interruptions in their care.
Read more: Florida Transgender Rule Overturned By Court
Hormone Replacement Therapy
But the flood of patients is a problem, according to Nass, because the current system is unable to accommodate all the potential refugees.
Arlo Dennis, 35, has decided that it is time to relocate his family of five from the Orlando area, where they have lived for more than ten years, as a result of Florida’s legislative targeting of trans individuals and their health care. To Maryland, they intend to relocate.
Dennis, who prefers the pronouns they/them, is no longer able to receive hormone replacement therapy as Florida’s Medicaid program ceased paying for transition-related care in the latter part of August on the grounds that the treatments are unproven and experimental.
Read more: Addressing Transgender Health: US Catholic Bishops To Issue Groundbreaking Guidelines