{"id":8975,"date":"2025-10-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8975"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:00:00","slug":"after-chiding-democrats-on-transgender-politics-newsom-vetoes-a-key-health-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8975","title":{"rendered":"After Chiding Democrats on Transgender Politics, Newsom Vetoes a Key Health Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a suite of <\/a>privacy protection bills<\/a> for transgender patients amid continuing threats by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

But there was one glaring omission that LGBTQ+ advocates and political strategists say is part of an increasingly complex dance the Democrat faces as he curates a more centrist profile for a potential presidential bid.<\/p>\n

Newsom vetoed a bill<\/a> that would have required insurers to cover, and pharmacists to dispense, 12 months of hormone therapy at one time to transgender patients and others. The proposal was a top priority<\/a> for trans rights leaders, who said it was crucial to preserve care as clinics close or limit<\/a> gender-affirming services under White House pressure.<\/p>\n

Political experts say Newsom\u2019s veto<\/a> highlights how charged trans care has become for Democrats nationally<\/a> and, in particular, for Newsom, who as San Francisco mayor engaged in civil disobedience by allowing gay couples to marry at City Hall<\/a>. The veto, along with his lukewarm response to anti-trans rhetoric, they argue, is part of an alarming pattern that could damage his credibility with key voters in his base.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if there were no political motivations whatsoever under Newsom\u2019s decision, there are certainly political ramifications of which he is very aware,\u201d said Dan Schnur, a former GOP political strategist who is now a politics lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley. \u201cHe is smart enough to know that this is an issue that\u2019s going to anger his base, but in return, may make him more acceptable to large numbers of swing voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year on Newsom\u2019s podcast, the governor told the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk that trans athletes competing in women\u2019s sports was \u201cdeeply unfair<\/a>,\u201d triggering a backlash among his party\u2019s base and LGBTQ+ leaders. And he has described trans issues<\/a> as a \u201cmajor problem for the Democratic Party,\u201d saying Donald Trump\u2019s trans-focused campaign ads<\/a> were \u201cdevastating\u201d for his party in 2024.<\/p>\n

Still, in a conversation with YouTube streamer ConnorEatsPants this month, Newsom defended himself<\/a> \u201cas a guy who\u2019s literally put my political life on the line for the community for decades, has been a champion and a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to face the criticism as someone who, I\u2019m sure, is trying to line himself up for the presidency, when the current anti-trans rhetoric is so loud,\u201d said Ariela Cuellar, a spokesperson for the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network.<\/p>\n

Caroline Menjivar, the state senator who introduced the measure, described her bill as \u201cthe most tangible and effective\u201d measure this year to help trans people at a time when they are being singled out for what she described as \u201ctargeted discrimination.\u201d In a legislature in which Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses, lawmakers sent the bill to Newsom on a party-line vote. Earlier this year, Washington became the first<\/a> to enact a state law extending hormone therapy coverage to a 12-month supply.<\/p>\n

In a veto message<\/a> on the California bill, Newsom cited its potential to drive up health care costs, impacts that an independent analysis<\/a> found would be negligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when individuals are facing double-digit rate increases in their health care premiums across the nation, we must take great care to not enact policies that further drive up the cost of health care, no matter how well-intended,\u201d Newsom wrote.<\/p>\n

Under the Trump administration<\/a>, federal agencies have been directed to limit access<\/a> to gender-affirming care for children, which Trump has referred to as \u201cchemical and surgical mutilation,\u201d and demanded documents<\/a> from or threatened investigations<\/a> of institutions that provide it.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Stanford Medicine<\/a>, Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles<\/a>, and Kaiser Permanente<\/a> have reduced or eliminated gender-affirming care for patients under 19, a sign of the chilling effect Trump\u2019s executive orders have had on health care, even in one of the nation\u2019s most progressive states.<\/p>\n

California already mandates<\/a> wide coverage of gender-affirming health care, including hormone therapy, but pharmacists can currently dispense only a 90-day supply. Menjivar\u2019s bill would have allowed 12-month supplies, modeled after a 2016 law<\/a> that allowed women to receive an annual supply of birth control.<\/p>\n

Luke Healy, who told legislators<\/a> at an April hearing that he was \u201ca 24-year-old detransitioner\u201d and no longer believed he was a woman, criticized the attempt to increase coverage of services he thought were \u201cirreversibly harmful\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that bills like this are forcing doctors to turn healthy bodies into perpetual medical problems in the name of an ideology,\u201d Healy testified.<\/p>\n

The California Association of Health Plans opposed the bill over provisions that would limit the use of certain practices such as prior authorization and step therapy, which require insurer approval before care is provided and force patients and doctors to try other therapies first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese safeguards are essential for applying evidence-based prescribing standards and responsibly managing costs \u2014 ensuring patients receive appropriate care while keeping premiums in check,\u201d said spokesperson Mary Ellen Grant.<\/p>\n

An analysis by the California Health Benefits Review Program, which independently reviews bills relating to health insurance, concluded that annual premium increases resulting from the bill\u2019s implementation would be negligible and that \u201cno long-term impacts on utilization or cost\u201d were expected.<\/p>\n

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said Newsom\u2019s economic argument was \u201cnot plausible.\u201d Although he said he considers Newsom a strong ally of the transgender community, Minter noted he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d to see the governor\u2019s veto. \u201cI understand he\u2019s trying to respond to this political moment, and I wish he would respond to it by modeling language and policies that can genuinely bring people along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s press office declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

Following the podcast interview with Kirk, Cuellar said, advocacy groups backing SB 418 grew concerned about a potential veto and made a point to highlight voices of other patients who would benefit, including menopausal women and cancer patients. It was a starkly different strategy than what they might have done before Trump took office.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad we run this bill in 2022-2023, the messaging would have been totally different,\u201d said another proponent who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. \u201cWe could have been very loud and proud. In 2023, we might have gotten a signing ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates for trans rights were so wary of the current political climate that some also felt the need to steer clear of promoting a separate bill that would have expanded coverage of hormone therapy and other treatments for menopause and perimenopause. That bill<\/a>, authored by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who has spoken movingly about her struggles with health care for perimenopause, was also vetoed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, said Jovan Wolf, a trans man and military veteran, patients like him will be left to suffer.<\/p>\n

Wolf, who had taken testosterone for more than 15 years, tried to restart hormone therapy in March, following a two-year hiatus in which he contemplated having children.<\/p>\n

Doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs told him it was too late. Days earlier, the Trump administration had announced<\/a> it would phase out hormone therapy and other treatments for gender dysphoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving estrogen pumping through my body, it\u2019s just not a good feeling for me, physically, mentally. And when I\u2019m on testosterone, I feel balanced,\u201d said Wolf, who eventually received care elsewhere. \u201cIt should be my decision and my decision only.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was produced by <\/em>KFF Health News<\/em><\/a>, which publishes <\/em>California Healthline<\/em><\/a>, an editorially independent service of the <\/em>California Health Care Foundation<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a suite of privacy protection bills for transgender patients amid continuing threats by the Trump administration. But there was one glaring omission that LGBTQ+ advocates and political strategists say is part of an increasingly complex dance the Democrat faces as he curates a more centrist profile for a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}