Rady Children’s Hospital said it will stop providing gender-affirming medical interventions, including prescriptions and procedures starting Feb. 6. The hospital cited proposed federal actions that could cut its Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals providing this type of care as the reason for the decision. Counseling, mental health support and care coordination for transgender and gender-diverse patients will continue, the hospital said in a statement.
The San Diego LGBT Community Center has received calls from concerned families as a result of the decision, said David Vance, director of advocacy and civic engagement at the center..
“There are a lot of youth and their families who were already in the process of receiving this care from Radys, who are now going to have to very likely stop accessing that care, which puts youth at even greater risk,” they said.
Gender-affirming care can include medications such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, said Dr. Chandani DeZure, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego.
“Another medical intervention is cross-sex hormone therapy, so when you think about testosterone or estrogen and an androgen inhibitor,” DeZure said.
Abrupt interruptions can increase health risks, she said.
“It disrupts ongoing medical relationships, it increases the mental health risk. It deepens the inequities in health care systems, and it fractures the continuity of care,” she said. “When trusted clinics disappear, some youth disengage from health care entirely.”
Kaiser is already seeing some patients from Rady, she said. But switching providers is not an option for many families.
Private clinics may be available for families, “but accessing that kind of care is going to be much, much more expensive,” Vance said.
The Alliance for Transyouth Rights is organizing a rally outside Rady Children’s Hospital at 11 a.m. on Saturday to protest the decision.
