Earlier this month, the federal government announced it would cut off funding for minors receiving gender affirming care on public insurance. California said that it would bridge the cuts with a $26 million fund.
The reality is more complicated. The state hasn’t set up a way for providers to bill for gender affirming care.
State Senator Scott Weiner says initially the LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus tried to address that back in January. He says they asked the Department of Health and Human services to start working on a billing pathway.
"It apparently did not do so and it's just potentially starting now and saying that it's going to take an extended period of time," said Senator, Scott Weiner. "We don't have any time to lose."
Senator Weiner says the caucus asked for $10 million in emergency funding yesterday, to provide this continuity of care.
Rainbow Families Action is a Bay Area based group of parents of trans and gender expansive kids. A parent from the organization spoke to KALW on the condition of anonymity for family safety reasons. They are a parent of a child receiving gender affirming care and said this situation is urgent.
"It's incredibly impactful on their mental health because they are living in a world as their true gender and to have that taken away is just devastating," they said.
The state doesn’t know how long it could take to create a new billing system. August 31 is the deadline to secure emergency funding.
