A survey of patients receiving gender-affirming care shows that commercial insurance pays for most of their treatments, but they receive less care in the South than other parts of the U.S. and they deal with disproportionate levels of housing insecurity and trauma compared to others, according to a new study by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
The study, using data provided by Kythera Labs, a health care clearinghouse, examined millions of insurance claims by patients undergoing gender affirming care (GA) and those not. It also looked at social determinants of health care (SDOH), non-medical factors which affect a person's quality of life. The study is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine .
It showed that commercial insurance covered 72.8% of GA claims, followed by Medicaid at 17.2 %, other insurance at 6.
6% and Medicare at 3.5%. GA patients incurred more claims across all insurance and age groups, about 87% more overall.
GA patients had the smallest number of claims filed in the South—21.9% vs. 31.
1%. The West had the highest numbers at 26.7% vs.
22%. The Northeast was next with 26.4% vs.
23.2% and the Midwest was 24.3% vs.
21.4%. "The relatively smaller proportion of claims filed in the South could represent lower proportions of GA persons living there and/or less access to gender-affirming care," said the study's lead author, Jason Brian Gibbons, Ph.
D., associate professor of heal.