TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — From 2017 to 2021, Florida Medicaid saw only a 63 percent increase in children receiving therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria. At the same time, there was an alarming increase in pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria, including a 270 percent increase in children receiving puberty blockers; a 166 percent increase in children receiving testosterone, and a 110 percent increase in children receiving estrogen. This according to new data released by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
The data only includes the Medicaid population and does not reflect the total statewide numbers across all forms of healthcare. The AHCA used the number of behavioral health therapy visits by recipients and procedures. What comes out is that the usage of puberty blockers and hormones greatly exceeds the number of therapy visits.
From 2017 to 2021, there was an increase in children as young as 16 who received irreversible surgical procedures in the Medicaid population. Between 2017 and 2020, only three children underwent such procedures. But in 2021 alone, the number was 12 children – which represents a 1,100 percent increase.
“The soaring increase in children receiving pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria was vastly greater than children receiving behavioral health treatments for gender dysphoria. This is a concerning statistic and potentially indicative of a medical community increasingly focused on promoting treatments found to be experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long-term effects, including brain swelling and aneurysm,” the AHCA writes in a statement to The Florida Standard.
