Don’t Mess With Texas: Defining Gender Affirming Care as “Child Abuse” is a Disaster…for Healthcare

The gripping tale of a series of unintended consequences from which Texas—and employer based health insurance—may never escape

If there’s one thing this column’s eponymous narrator, O. Scott Muir, M.D. loves, it is gonzo healthcare journalism and schadenfreude finding common cause. And, late-summer New Hampshire family-vacationing not withstanding, this following regulatory Rube-Goldberg Machine is too much of an unbelievable 💩 show to pass up.

TL;DR—

1. Texas Governor Gregory Abbott issued an executive orders that mandates medical action that is not in keeping with the international standard of care.

2. Medical malpractice insurance will not underwrite risk they cannot manage.

3. Defining gender affirming care as reportable child abuse is a legal 🔥💣.

4. No malpractice insurance, no medical practice.* (it’s legal in Texas to practice without medical malpractice insurance, I just don’t know how many doctors are gonna want to do that!)

5. Some states would rather live free or die: