By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell – The Daily Signal
America’s largest health insurance company covers double mastectomies for some 17-year-old girls who identify as transgender.
UnitedHealthcare’s “Gender Dysphoria Treatment” guide, which took effect Dec. 1, says: “For mastectomy or breast reduction, individuals must be at least 18 years of age; however, individuals within one calendar year of turning 18 can be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
UnitedHealthcare didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on the circumstances in which the health insurance company would cover double mastectomies for minors or how often it makes exceptions.
Some insurance providers cover transgender medical interventions for minors, though many shy away from funding surgeries.
Premera Blue Cross covers “non-surgical medical treatment (such as mental health visits and hormone therapy for adolescents) for minors with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.”
Aetna requires 12 months of “continuous hormone therapy as appropriate to the member’s gender goals” before minors receive “gender-affirming” facial feminization and body-contouring services. Such procedures make a person’s face and body look more like that of the opposite sex.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield allows 18-year-olds who meet its “gender-affirming chest procedure criteria” to “request further consideration” about obtaining a double mastectomy from a “provider with experience treating adolescents with gender dysphoria.”
None of these health insurance providers immediately responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment before publication.
Female detransitioners who underwent double mastectomies as minors and lived to regret it have warned against allowing children to consent to procedures with life-long consequences.
Chloe Cole, 20, got a double mastectomy at 15 only to regret it a few months later. She calls this “the biggest mistake of my life.”
Clementine Breen, 20, began taking puberty blockers at 12 and testosterone at 13. She had “top surgery”—a double mastectomy—at 14.
Breen says her mental state immediately got worse. Her anxiety developed into what she describes as a “psychotic break.”
“What really, really upset me is that I will never be able to breastfeed, and I will have to get surgery every 10 years to replace the implants, and it won’t look as natural as it should have been,” Breen told The Daily Signal. “I will never know what my body should have looked like.”
Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, was gunned down early Dec. 4 outside an annual shareholders’ meeting in New York City. His accused killer was extradited Thursday from Pennsylvania back to New York, where he faces state and federal charges, Fox News reported.