Recently Baystate Pediatric Endocrinology sent a letter to families stating they will no longer provide medically necessary care to trans kids. These children are no different from children with diabetes who come to the same providers. The medications used for gender affirming care are effective and safe, just like those for diabetes. Why can one group receive care when the other is turned away?
Why is Baystate denying trans kids the care they need to live and flourish? One can assume it is because of the Trump administration’s threat to withhold Medicaid and Medicare payments to hospitals that provide gender care to minors. This is an explanation, but it is not an excuse. Trump’s threats are not actual laws, and if challenged may never become law. The law currently in effect protects trans kids’ access to health care. Rather than stand up for their vulnerable patients, Baystate Health is quietly sacrificing the health of children in an attempt to insulate itself from a possible future scenario.
In the past, when politics determined medical care, we had hospitals segregated by race, women unable to get medication without approval of husbands, and forced sterilization. Today it is gender care; tomorrow it could be antidepressants or drugs to reduce cholesterol. Your health care and your life are not secure when one of the state’s leading regional hospitals is willing to deny care to others, regardless of the explanation. Baystate Health, the people of western Massachusetts deserve better.
Sylvia Brandt and Jennifer Kaplan
Amherst