Florida Committee Passes Bill Mandating Health Insurance Cover Conversion Therapy

A new bill in Florida would mandate health insurance plans cover conversion therapy, according to the bill's sponsor. It also bans trans people from updating their drivers license gender markers.

On Monday, the Florida Select Committee on Health Innovation passed House Bill 1639, a bill that would mandate that health insurers cover conversion therapy for transgender people. The bill would also bar transgender people from updating the gender markers on their drivers licenses and make it easier for health insurers to deny healthcare coverage for gender affirming care at any age. Representative Doug Bankson, a pastor from Victory Church in Apopka, sponsored the bill and presented it during the hearing. During at least one line of questioning, Representative Bankson acknowledged that the bill would require health insurers to cover conversion therapy.

The 10-page long bill spells out a number of stipulations for transgender care. One provision requires that any health insurance provider covering gender affirming care also cover detransition care. Though the bill’s sponsor claimed that this would allow detransitioners to get health insurance coverage, the reality is that many providers in Florida will likely reject providing both trans and detrans care coverage altogether - state law already allows exclusions on trans healthcare.

The most troubling component of the health care portion of the bill, however, focuses on mental healthcare. The bill reads:

“A health benefit plan that is delivered or issued to an individual or a group in the state may not prohibit the coverage of mental health or therapeutic services to treat a person's perception that his or her sex, as defined in s. 456.001, is inconsistent with such person's sex at birth by affirming the insured's sex.”

This means that parents could enroll their children in programs aiming to "treat a person's perception" of being transgender, with the ultimate goal of "affirming" the birth sex of transgender youth. It is crucial to note that there is no evidence supporting the effectiveness of conversion therapy in altering gender identity or sexuality. More significantly, attempts at such therapy frequently increase suicide rates and detrimentally impact mental health.

When asked about the provision by Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani, Representative Bankson did not attempt to deflect or couch the language and explicitly acknowledged that his bill allowed for conversion therapy.

“Are you mandating that private insurances provide coverage to conversion therapy, is that what this bill would do?” she asked.

“Basically, it makes sure that those who would desire to seek that have that option,” he confirmed.

Watch the exchange here:

The bill also would have huge impacts on the ability of transgender people in the state to obtain correct identification documents. It would mandate that the state define “sex” as chromosomal, and would then use that definition for drivers licenses n the state. Notably, few people are chromosomally tested when they are born and the bill entirely leaves out intersex people. The bill would make Florida one of the first states that would mandate drivers licenses show someone’s assigned sex at birth, entirely outlawing legal transition when it comes to this crucial identification document.

During the hearing, opponents to the bill outnumbered proponents heavily. Only a single person supporting the bill spoke in favor of it. Meanwhile, transgender people and parents of trans youth spoke out heavily in opposition. Despite the lopsided numbers in opposition to the bill, it passed out of committee on a party-line vote.

Similar bills are moving across the United States to make conversion therapy more accessible or even mandate its practice. One bill in Oklahoma, for instance, would allow transgender youth to be placed into unsupportive homes who have a religious stance against LGBTQ+ people. Another bill in Iowa would seek to ban local government entities from banning conversion therapy. In Ohio, when overriding the veto of HB68, proponents of the bill stated that conversion therapy was the proper course of action. In West Virginia, one of the most extreme anti-trans bills introduced in 2024 would mandate that therapists practice conversion therapy on transgender people under the age of 21. The bill in Florida, however, may change the legal landscape around conversion therapy by not only legalizing it, but mandating that health insurance providers cover it.

House Bill 1639 heads to the House Insurance & Banking subcommittee next. If it passes into law, it will go into effect in July of this year.