Culture and Social Issues

Major Foreign Insurer Cuts Coverage For ‘Gender-Affirming’ Doctors, Citing Lawsuits Over Transition Regret

No featured image available

MDA National, a major medical indemnity insurance provider in Australia, will no longer cover private practitioners for claims related to the administration of cross-sex medical interventions to minors due to concerns about future lawsuits, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The closure of the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in the U.K. inspired the decision from MDA National, according to SMH; the National Health Service shut down GIDS after an independent review found the clinic was unsafe for children and that doctors were rushing them through cross-sex medical procedures with inadequate mental health treatment. MDA National is not confident that it can accurately estimate and price out the risk of future regret for children undergoing cross-sex medical treatments, who could sue medical providers over gender treatments they eventually regret.

“We’re not taking a moral stance or an ethical stance – this is very much an insurance decision,” Dr. Michael Gannon, MDA National’s president, said, according to SMH. “We don’t think we can accurately and fairly price the risk of regret.”

Youths with gender dysphoria should be assessed by a multidisciplinary team at a hospital rather than a private general practitioner, Gannon told SMH.

“This is the same hospital system that is very, very comfortable placing greater demands on general practitioners,” he said. “It’s simply not fair to ask individual GPs in the suburbs or the bush to be making these complex decisions on their own.”

Detransitioners — individuals who regret undergoing gender transitions — have become a focal point in the debate over childhood medical transitions. Many detransitioners adopted transgender identities suddenly in adolescence following lengthy mental health struggles, and they often report being rushed into irreversible hormones and surgical procedures they eventually regret. Several detransitioners have initiated high profile lawsuits against medical practitioners.

MDA National did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.