As of July 1, 2023, the Trudeau government will be funding the medical sex changes of transgender federal employees up to a cost of $75,000 for what is described as helping people “with their gender affirmation journey.”
The changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) were announced by the Treasury Board and include modest increases to coverage for physiotherapy, massage therapy and vision care, whereas the whopping amount for “gender-affirming procedures” is intended to cover certain “medically necessary” interventions that are not covered by provincial health plans.
Coverage varies from province to province, but using Ontario as an example, that could mean coverage for electrolysis, laser hair removal, or liposuction if such procedures are deemed medically necessary by an attending physician or nurse practitioner.
Tracheal shaves, facial masculinization and feminization surgery, and buttock implants are also considered by some trans activists as being medically necessary life-saving care but the Treasury Board announcement does not specify whether cosmetic procedures such as these will be funded by the taxpayer.
An NDP-proposed gender-affirming healthcare bill in Ontario that seeks to expand provincial coverage for such interventions is currently stalled at first reading.
Most provinces already cover cross-sex hormone therapy, along with breast augmentation for males who identify as women and bilateral mastectomies for females who identify as men.
Genital surgeries are also covered, including vaginoplasty, which is the amputation of the penis that is then fashioned into a cavity resembling a vagina; as well as phalloplasty, an extremely radical surgery involving stripping the skin and flesh of a female patient’s forearm or thigh and using the tissue to sculpt a non-functional appendage that is then attached to the groin. Both genital surgeries come with extraordinarily high complication rates.
Ontario has even opened Canada’s first vaginoplasty post-operative care clinic to deal with the myriad of issues faced by males who have undergone this procedure
Hysterectomies and oophorectomies (the removal of ovaries) are also typically covered by provincial health care plans.
Canada now has its first detransitioner malpractice lawsuit underway after Michelle Zacchigna of Ontario announced that she is suing the healthcare providers who facilitated her medical sex change while she was going through a severe mental health crisis. Zacchigna alleges that she was allowed to self-diagnose as transgender and despite years of serious mental health issues was placed on an irreversible medical pathway that ended in a bilateral mastectomy and hysterectomy that she now deeply regrets.
