Government Funds Reimbursed Gender Hormone Therapy Services at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

With abortion being the spotlight policy issue of the past few years, Planned Parenthood’s offering of gender hormone therapy has flown under the radar.

This article was originally published by the MacIver Institute and was shared with permission.

Gender hormone therapy services have been on the rise at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, providing medication to 1,030 patients in just fiscal year 2022-23 alone. This is up from only 488 gender hormone therapy services being provided to patients in FY 2020-21.

The real catch: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin had been receiving government funding for gender hormone therapy services all the way up until the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Historically, Planned Parenthood has received government funding via Medicaid reimbursements. When a BadgerCare recipient visited Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the cost of the services that were provided would be reimbursed by the government at a rate of approximately 63%.

However, with the passage of the OBBB in July, Planned Parenthood is now blocked from receiving any Medicaid reimbursement funding for any of its services.

It has always been illegal in all 50 states for Medicaid reimbursements to be used for abortion. There are several other states that also prohibit reimbursements from being used to pay for gender hormone therapy services. However, as reported by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, Wisconsin is not one of the states preventing GHT services from receiving reimbursements.

The Hill reported earlier this year that at least 10 states are moving to ban Medicaid coverage for all transgender procedures and medications for both adults and minors. Again, Wisconsin is not one of those states.

Gender hormone therapy at Planned Parenthood has been eligible for Medicaid reimbursements in Wisconsin since 2019, when a federal judge issued a permanent injunction. This injunction struck down a 1997 Wisconsin state law that excluded “gender-affirming care” from being covered by Medicaid.

The judge ruled that sex-change surgeries and gender hormone therapy were “medically necessary,” and barring them from being covered by Medicaid violated the Affordable Care Act and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Moreover, in 2023, Governor Evers vetoed a provision in the 2023-25 Wisconsin State Budget that would have barred Medicaid reimbursements from being used on gender reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers.

It is worth noting that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin provides services to over a thousand minors each year. It is unclear how many of their recipients of gender hormone therapy are minors and how many of these patients could be minors receiving Medicaid reimbursements.