The Temperature | Gender-affirming care under investigation
Hey there, Colorado, and welcome back to The Temperature, where this week’s items document the various anxieties currently hammering the health care system — one about federal investigations for certain types of medical care and another about rising costs and perhaps increasingly difficult access to health care.
And let’s add another one to the list that came down this morning: The state has announced the preliminary insurance prices that carriers in the individual market are proposing for next year. This is normally not a huge deal because state regulators must still tweak and approve those rates — final rates are typically announced in the early fall.
But this year, the insurance prices reflect some of the baked-in costs of recent federal action and inaction on health insurance rules and subsidies. The net result is a huge proposed increase — 28% on average statewide, with Grand Junction seeing a potential 38% increase. Watch ColoradoSun.com later today for that story.
And with a deep, calming breath, let’s dive in.
GENDER CARE
Fox News says the DOJ is investigating Children’s Hospital Colorado. But is that true?
Last month, Fox News cited an anonymous source to report that doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado are the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation tied to gender-affirming care provided to transgender kids.
But, at least as of late last week, the hospital says neither it nor any of its medical providers have been contacted by the DOJ — no subpoenas, no phone calls, no business cards left ominously in doorjambs.
In addition, the hospital does not provide the type of care that the feds are purportedly investigating: gender-affirming surgeries to kids under the age of 18, which the administration of President Donald Trump, per Fox, now categorizes as illegal female genital mutilation. The hospital no longer provides the surgeries to anyone, period.
“Children’s Hospital Colorado has not been contacted by the FBI or the Department of Justice,” the hospital said in a statement to The Sun. “To be clear, we have never provided gender-affirming surgical care for patients under the age of 18. In 2023, we made the decision to no longer provide gender-affirming surgical procedures impacting patients 18 years of age and older.”
Whether true or not, the report adds to the pressure on children’s hospitals that treat transgender patients.
Children’s Hospital Colorado was among the nine hospitals that in May received a letter from federal health authorities asking for financial information and other details related to gender-affirming care. Children’s said it provided a response to that request but did not elaborate.
Children’s was one of three Colorado health systems — Denver Health and UCHealth were the others — that shut down most gender-affirming care for trans youth in January, when the Trump administration announced it would pull federal funding from hospitals that provided such care. Children’s and Denver Health started their care back up in February after a federal judge blocked the order.
Like Children’s, Denver Heath does not provide gender-affirming surgeries to youth. Both hospitals’ care consists of providing hormone therapies, treatments that block the onset of puberty and other supportive care. UCHealth does not provide gender-affirming care to minors.
Denver Health says it has not been contacted by the DOJ.
Fox reported that the DOJ investigation stems from a memo U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued earlier this year instructing prosecutors to use a federal law against female genital mutilation — or FGM, in the memo’s terminology — to go after medical providers offering gender-affirming surgeries.
“I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible,” the memo stated, as reported by Fox.
The New York Times has seemed to confirm the investigation, reporting Thursday that the DOJ had issued subpoenas to more than 20 doctors and hospitals demanding confidential patient information. The report did not name the hospitals or doctors who received a subpoena.
AFFORDABILITY
A new poll shows Coloradans are increasingly worried about affording health care
The percentage of respondents who said health care costs are an extremely or very serious problem
Coloradans are more worried about being able to afford health care and maintain coverage than they have been since at least the COVID pandemic, and the recently passed federal spending bill that cuts Medicaid may be in part to blame.
The finding comes from the latest Pulse Poll, conducted annually by the Colorado Health Foundation. In the poll — which surveyed about 2,300 Coloradans in April and May — 75% of respondents said they believe the cost of health care in Colorado is an extremely or very serious problem.
Health care costs have long been among poll respondents’ most pressing concerns. But this year’s poll records the highest level of concern since at least 2021. That year, 65% of respondents said health care affordability was an extremely or very serious problem.
In this year’s poll, only 6% of respondents said they believed health care affordability was not too serious of a problem.
“It’s dismissed by almost no one,” said pollster Lori Weigel, one half of the poll’s bipartisan team of pollsters.
On top of that, 38% of respondents said they are very or somewhat worried that either they or someone in their household will be without health coverage in the coming year. That, too, is the highest level the poll has found since at least 2021.
Asked what caused them to worry about lost coverage, 18% cited the loss of a job — the top single answer. But a combined 31% cited increasing costs or the inability to afford coverage, which were split into separate answers and ranked second and third, individually.
The next-highest ranked answers all reflected anxieties about how policy changes would impact health coverage — respondents cited Medicaid cuts, politics and Trump administration policies. Together, those three captured a combined 32% of respondents.
“It’s really notable that we’ve seen a jump just in the last year in concern about the cost of health care specifically,” Weigel said.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.07 percentage points.
Full results for the poll will be rolled out in August on the Pulse Poll website. For now, though, there are blog posts that summarize these first results, which also include findings on the broader issues that Coloradans are most worried about, including political instability and the rising cost of living.
MORE ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH NEWS
The Pulse Poll, which we mentioned above, provided a tidbit that shows how Medicaid work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks could hit communities of color especially hard in Colorado.
The poll asked respondents whether they had been laid off in the prior year. This year, 8% said they had been, which is more than in 2022 when the question was last asked but less than in 2021 amid the COVID pandemic.
Under the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, work requirements and extra eligibility checks apply only to those who qualify for Medicaid based on incomes and not because of a disability. So this poll question is especially relevant for thinking about Medicaid because people who qualify for Medicaid based on income may yo-yo on and off coverage as their employment status changes.
And who yo-yoes the most? According to the poll, people with a household income below $30,000 per year were most likely to report losing a job in the prior year — 17% said they did. The next highest level came from people reporting household incomes of $30,000 to $50,000.
Depending on household size, these are Medicaid-qualifying income levels, which means people who are most likely to lose their job during the year will likely also be those required to show evidence of work to get health coverage.
It’s also likely that communities of color will be hit harder. In the poll, 10% of Hispanic respondents, 9% of Black respondents and 9% of Asian respondents said they had lost a job in the prior year. That compares with 6% of white respondents.
How’s your heart rate? Roughly the equivalent of a drumline duel right now? Grab yourself a cold beverage and step outside for a bit — assuming (sigh) your air isn’t too choked with wildfire smoke.
Whatever the news, it’s always a pleasure to spend this time with you. Till next week.
— John & Michael
Corrections & Clarifications
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