Oregon to Force Health Insurers to Cover Trans Surgeries for Minors

The state of Oregon is proposing a rule that will force all health insurers in the state, public and private alike, to cover genital mutilation surgery for minors who believe they are “transgender,” threatening the loss of state licenses for insurers who refuse.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the proposal from Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) follows the guidelines set by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which declares that the removal of children’s genitals are “medically necessary.” Following a law passed in 2023 making Oregon a so-called “trans sanctuary state,” the state has largely followed the orders of WPATH and other medically dubious organizations that support the false and scientifically-debunked idea of “transgenderism.”

Oregon has already forced insurers to guarantee that children can receive puberty blockers and other forms of hormone treatment. The escalation to full genital surgery, set to take effect next year, would be the most radical move yet. DCBS spokesman Mark Peterson said that this rule will dictate “what insurance companies are required to cover and how they provide that coverage.”

The new rule will also force insurers to contract with multiple “gender doctors” in order to prevent long wait times. Any health plan employees who are responsible for denying such claims have to take WPATH’s training sessions in order to “demonstrate their experience with gender-affirming treatment.”

The rule was unveiled on October 30th, with public comment closing on Tuesday. It will formally take effect on January 1st.

Oregon is following WPATH’s orders even despite the organization coming under greater scrutiny. A report from the Economist detailed how WPATH manipulated its own research to produce the outcome it desired based on ideology rather than hard science. The group also suppressed a commissioned research report regarding transitioning minors due to the report’s failure to show benefits that were initially promised. Even the Biden-Harris Administration has cracked down on the group, forcing it to raise the minimum age for recommended “transgender care.”

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on transgenderism, saying on the campaign trail in 2023 that his administration will “protect children from left-wing gender insanity.” He plans to use executive orders to shut down funding for groups that promote such ideologies and treatments, to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not fund these procedures, and to ban these operations from being carried out on minors.