ATLANTA — Transgender state employees could soon lose some of their state health benefits under a bill that passed out of a committee on Tuesday.
This bill would deny not only money for surgeries but also for hormone treatments, even state Medicaid money.
Republicans insist this is about saving taxpayer money. Democrats just call it cruel.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot said the House committee vote went right down party lines.
“So the bill prevents public dollars from covering transgender surgeries,” the bill’s sponsor, Dawsonville Republican Brent Cox, said.
Cox said the bill would not only prevent state health benefits from paying for surgeries, it also bans hormone therapies, medical assistance programs, even Medicaid dollars from covering any medical interventions for those transgender state employees.
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“The intent of this bill is to not use state funds to account for that and these surgeries, if needed to be done, could be done like many other surgeries and treatments with an individual’s own money and not coming from taxpayers,” Cox said.
But Democrats pushed back.
“Where are we going with this? Why do you take out one group of people and segregate them from the rest of the whole state benefit plan?” Democratic state Rep. Demetrius Douglas said.
Democrats warned that the state of Georgia has lost every single lawsuit filed against it by a transgender employee and insists this bill will only open the state up to more costly lawsuits as they believe it violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“This bill is cruel, and it’s unnecessarily cruel. They say it’s about saving money, however, the truth of the matter is when you pass unconstitutional bills, as this bill is, it’s been shown to be in other states as well, it actually costs the state more,” Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Clark said.
With the bill passing out of that committee, it could come up for a vote in the House in the next couple of days.
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