by Laurel Duggan
Rachel Levine, who is now assistant secretary for health in the Biden administration, discussed the potential revenue that could be generated by a gender clinic social worker who could advocate for child sex change procedures in emails, reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation, with a pediatrician.
Dr. Rollyn Ornstein, a pediatrician at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, believed a social worker for the hospital’s gender clinic would generate enough revenue to make funding the position worthwhile, noting that even with age restrictions for sex change surgeries, child patients would eventually turn 18 and be eligible for further interventions, according to emails from 2018 between Rollyn and Levine obtained by parental rights activist Megan Brock and reviewed by the DCNF. Social workers at pediatric gender clinics can work as surgery advocates, gathering letters of recommendation on behalf of minors seeking sex change procedures that insurance companies are otherwise hesitant to cover, according to a 2021 report from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the National Association of Social Workers.
Levine recommended a contact for Ornstein to reach out to and said that, while surgical referrals might be limited to only mastectomies for minors, the position would still pay for itself.
“As I am trying to convince the administration about the need for a MSW [Masters in Social Work] position specific for the imminent (?) Gender clinic, I am trying to put together a presentation re: potential revenue, including downstream,” Ornstein wrote. “The info from the 2015 report is great but I believe insurance has changed since then, with more coverage (? For surgery) than previously.”
Levine, who at the time was Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of health, was confident that the hospital would be able to fund a social worker in this position, but noted that age restrictions for gender surgeries meant the social worker’s consultations for minors would be limited to “FtM [female to male] top surgeries,” a euphemism for mastectomies. Mastectomies are more commonly performed on minors than other gender-related procedures.
“You should be able to fund a MSW for evaluation and therapy for pediatric and adolescent patients in a program such as you do for the ED program and is done at CHOP,” Levine wrote. “Pre surgical consult for patients under 18 will most likely be limited to FTM Top surgery and that might be a rather limited group of patients.”
🚨🧵 Public Records show Rachel Levine discussing potential revenue and ROI associated with having a Gender Clinic Social Worker.
These emails from 12/2018 are between Levine and Rollyn M. Ornstein, MD.
Rollyn was affiliated with Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. pic.twitter.com/hh40La7dHg
— Meg Brock (@MegEBrock) February 16, 2023
Ornstein noted that, even if children were limited in which gender transition surgeries they could get as minors, those children would eventually turn 18, making the social worker’s efforts more financially rewarding.
“I am trying to give them some numbers to help them realize the eventual ROI (return on investment) for this necessary position,” Ornstein said in another email. “Even if the patients under 18 who go for surgery might be limited, the patients we start with will eventually be over 18…so I still think it’s worthwhile. Of course, I think it’s worthwhile no matter what.”
Social workers are responsible for advocating for transgender people in a variety of ways, including pressuring insurance companies to cover cross-sex medical interventions including surgeries, according to the National Association of Social Workers.
Financial motives appear to play a major role in advocacy for cross-sex medical procedures; Johns Hopkins Medicine is lobbying Maryland to extend Medicaid coverage to transgender cosmetic procedures it offers, which could financially benefit the university hospital system. A professional association of plastic surgeons has been fighting against state attempts to restrict child sex changes and pushing for enhanced insurance coverage of transgender procedures since at least 2017.
Levine also worked with LGBT activists to block legislation that would have barred state funding from paying for child sex changes.
Levine and Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Laurel Duggan is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Rachel Levine” by Governor Tom Wolf. CC BY 2.0. Background Photo “Children” by Pixabay.
