‘There’s a lot of money in medicine’: Doctors tear up ‘gender-affirming care’

SHORT PUMP, Va. — Doctors say there is a “perverse” monetary incentive structure built around promoting “transgender” drugs and surgeries on children.

Breitbart News sat down with two Richmond-area doctors — a neurologist and a pediatrician — to discuss leftist movements in the practice of medicine. Both spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to face professional reactions.

“There’s a lot of money in medicine,” the neurologist said at a private conference to about 130 doctors and medical professionals near Richmond, Va., hosted by medical advocacy group Do No Harm. “I think the dollar incentive is hard to get around.”

As Breitbart News reported, there is a significant difference between how Western Europe and the United States treat children with gender dysphoria.

As the American medical establishment pushes for the ‘assertion’ model – which includes prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and mutilation surgeries to children – European countries have been ringing the bell. alarm about the harmfulness of such a model for children.

While there is an ideological component to America — which some doctors at the conference told Breitbart News was originally exported to Europe, not imported from Europe — the monetary incentive structures put in place are also powerful motivations.

“If you’re running a gender dysphoria clinic in the UK or France, you’re not going to get paid $5,000 for every operation,” the neurologist explained, noting the differences between the gender-focused US healthcare system. capitalism and socialized Europe. A. “The fact that the model is different is why Europeans are able to be honest about the situation.”

The doctor was not advocating socialized medicine, but rather pointing to a significant moral setback that may be present in the American system.

“When you talk about some of these invasive surgeries, you have to be careful to recognize that there are entities that are making a lot of money on the surgery,” he said.

Despite the questionable nature of the “gender affirmation” model, professional medical associations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) – among many others – are still pushing doctors and patients to continue it.

The problem is that “it’s not overwhelmingly accepted among the grassroots,” the pediatrician said.

“Most pediatricians are very uncomfortable that children are not mature enough at 12, 13, 14 [years old] make decisions to undergo body-altering treatments,” he continued. “There are probably a few, but it makes all of us very uncomfortable.”

The neurologist explained that the “transgender” issue arose in a “left coast to east coast movement celebrating LGBTQ”.

“He didn’t just acknowledge it. He didn’t just accept it. He celebrated it,” he said. “Transgender people kind of piled in.”

The movement attacked the family unit and “took advantage” of poor family structures to gain legitimacy.

“The vast majority of people would like to see a family unit, and they would like to see a family and parents involved in this child’s difficult transition or treatment,” the neurologist continued.

He called out Johns Hopkins specifically for “enrolling children in permanent surgeries for gender identity issues that are not appropriate.”

“At what point in the child’s development are you really able to say that he has irreversible gender dysphoria that deserves invasive treatment?” he asked, rhetorically. “The kids who are hurt are the kids who haven’t been diagnosed in a clear, complete and accurate way, and then they end up at 18 or 20. [years old] mutilated, and their lives are truly destroyed.

“It can be avoided by not celebrating and pushing kids into invasive things too soon,” he said.

Both doctors described the AMA, AAP and other professional societies as “very academically dominated.”

“I’m no longer a member of the AMA because I’ve seen the leadership of the AMA go from a mainstream, somewhat conservative group that supported patients to a very liberal organization that’s pretty much on the left side government and pushes a lot of these things. “, said the neurologist.

The pediatrician explained that these organizations are supposed to be on the “cutting edge of revolutionary treatments [and] new modes of therapy.

The “transgender” issue, however, is not the only radical change in the administration of health care in the United States. There has also been new racialized attention from medical schools and professional organizations across the country.

The push for critical race theory-type reforms in the medical field has been significant in recent years.

“It’s driven by the higher education system, not just the medical side, but the academic side, which is very strongly there for the awake movement, and DEI and BLM,” the neurologist said.

One manifestation is in the medical school admissions process, which often forces applicants to capitulate in support of anti-racism and diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as instituting racial quotas of admission.

“With medicine, we want the best and the brightest,” the pediatrician said. “Medicine, more than any profession, should be a meritocracy.”

He said he knows many young people who have “difficulty getting into medical school, and the idea that the decision would be made solely on the basis of ethnicity is very troubling.”

Medicine has historically “rewarded hard work” and “achievement”, the neurologist said, adding that patients expect a “well-trained and highly competent” doctor.

“I treat everyone. I work in the free clinic. I have been involved in health care all my life,” he continued. “I am understanding and respectful of the societal problems we have. But going to burn the entire medical education community trying to achieve very far-left liberal goals is not in the best interest.

When it comes to medical students having to submit essays on their commitment to ideology, the pediatrician expects “kids to play along.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of applicants who don’t buy into it at all but will write a letter just because, ‘I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to create a firestorm. I don’t want to not ruin my future and not get into med school,” he said. “It’s like college class, where you have a leftist professor, where you keep your mouth shut all semester. “

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.