Planned Parenthood Sponsors Bill to Force Insurance Companies to Keep Secrets from Parents (California)

One of Planned Parenthood’s priority bills in California this year requires health insurance companies to hide from parents “sensitive” medical procedures given to their adult and minor children. These “sensitive” services, as defined by SB 1004, include abortions; drug abuse and mental health treatment; and under certain circumstanced transgender hormones and sex change operations.

“Government bureaucrats should not be helping Planned Parenthood undermine parents’ rights to guide and oversee the healthcare of their children,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller. “Transparency matters. The owner of an insurance policy deserves to know what medical procedures they are paying for. If an adult under 26 wants insurance privacy, they can and should purchase their own insurance.”

According to the California Healthcare Foundation, California law permits minors of various ages to consent to the following medical procedures and treatment: abortion; drug and alcohol related problems; HIV/AIDS; certain infectious, contagious, or communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases; mental health drugs and counseling; pregnancy and birth control; and sexual assault. Under SB 1004, insurance companies would be criminally charged if they let parents know their health insurance policy was paying for these procedures for their minor children.

California law permits minors of various ages to consent to the following medical procedures and treatment: abortion; drug and alcohol related problems; HIV/AIDS; certain infectious, contagious, or communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases; mental health drugs and counseling; pregnancy and birth control; and sexual assault. Under SB 1004, insurance companies would be criminally charged if they let parents know their health insurance policy was paying for these procedures for their minor children

Not included in this minor medical procedure consent list is what SB 1004 defines as “transgender health, including gender-affirming care.” Planned Parenthood clinics around California have started to aggressively promote “Transgender Hormone Services,” or “Gender Affirming Care,” which include puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones; drugs that will permanently sterilize children. So far, Planned Parenthood says on its website that minors must get parental approval before receiving transgender hormone services. But a senior attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) believes a 23-year-old California Supreme Court decision could be used to justify letting minors consent to transgender drugs without parental approval.

PJI Senior Attorney Kevin Snider pointed to American Academy of Pediatrics v. Lundgren, a 1997 California Supreme Court decision he said, “emasculated parental rights… leaving moms and dads impotent to act as parents.” Snider explained how this case overturned a law requiring parental notification before a minor can have an abortion. The State’s high court found “that minors have informational and autonomy privacy in terms of intimate personal decisions, which trumps the rights of parents. It is doubtful that the ruling would not extend to minors ingesting cross-sex hormones,” Snider said.

Although Planned Parenthood is not publically advertising the use of transgender hormones on minors without parent approval, the California Teacher’s Association (CTA) is headed in that direction. According to a recent Epoch Times article, the CTA recently changed its policy for school-based health clinics stating “transgender and non-binary youth” aren’t being treated equitably with other kids when it comes to the permission required to take hormones.

The new policy reads: “CTA believes comprehensive school based health care clinics are needed to bring caring and responsive services to young people. The clinics shall provide cisgender, transgender and non-binary youth equal and confidential access to decision-making rights for students and their families.”

The Epoch Times when on to write: The rationale behind this policy change was printed in a CTA Report of Board of Directors, Committees, and Items of New Business in June 2019.

The rationale states: “Current interpretation of California state law does not allow trans students to begin gender identity confirming hormone therapy without the consent of both legal guardians, however it does allow for cis minors to receive hormones (e.g. birth control) without the barrier of parental permission.

“This inequity of decision-making forces some children to go through the wrong puberty and can negatively impact the child’s mental health.”

Last December, Planned Parenthood announced plans to set up health centers within 50 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to directly provide students with their array of services. If SB 1004 passes, services can be paid for by a student’s health insurance without the parent ever knowing about it.

SB 1004 has not yet been assigned to a Senate committee for a hearing, and will not be assigned a hearing until the Senate returns to session in May.

Call Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s office and respectfully ask her to pull SB 1004 from consideration. This bill undermines the rights of parents to oversee the medical decisions of their own children.

A fact-sheet from bill author Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, (D) Santa Barbara, states the legislation is necessary to protect young adults, who remain on their parent’s health insurance until age 26, from being shamed or hurt by the policyholder who disagrees with their healthcare choices. Yet, this bill not only hides the medical services used by young adults from their parents, but according to the text of SB 1004, it also hides services for “a minor who can consent to a health care service without the consent of a parent or legal guardian… .”

First, does this lady not realize that it is the parents' option to let the kid remain on their insurance until 26? The law only requires insurers to offer the option, but the parents aren't required to leave kiddo on there. In fact, most require the child to be removed if they acquire their own insurance from somewhere.

Secondly, how does this work with payment stuff? Do all these secret payments not count for deductibles/catastrophic caps/limit on benefits? Won't some people notice when the numbers don't line up with the one doc visit mom 'n' dad had?

Who pays the excess bills? Sure, kiddo might afford a $20 copay on their allowance from mowing grass and mopping the kitchen, but when the patient portion is several hundred/thousand dollars, who gets the bill if the parent's aren't allowed to find out? What happens when the entire policy gets locked down due to nonpayment of these secret services? Mom 'n' Dad can't be held responsible, they were not informed, and gave no permission for the expenditures to be made.

What about any kind of prescriptions? Not just payment, but who's gonna pick them up / dispense them? Does the kiddo have to sneak by Walgreens when Mom sends him to the grocery store on his bike for a loaf of bread? How irresponsible is it for a pharmacy to be dispensing whatever drugs, to someone who possibly can't comprehend their blurb about drug interactions or dosages or complications?

Speaking of complications, what happens when there's a major issue when they give their kid something over-the-counter that interacts horribly with one of these secret pills? And they can't tell the ER what's in unconscious kiddo's system because they don't know?

Who's responsible when Mom 'n' Dad find a pile of unlabeled pills in kiddo's sock drawer and toss them down the toilet? Does kiddo get a free refill? Who's responsible if a younger sibling gets into them? Who's responsible if they share pills with a friend?

What happens if the kiddo wants something that isn't covered by the plan? Does this bill give them authority to pick a more expensive healthcare option so they can get their chopoffadiktomy covered? Are they just then covered under CA-Care? Do they have to give up on the procedure?

California law permits minors of various ages to consent to the following medical procedures and treatment: abortion; drug and alcohol related problems; HIV/AIDS; certain infectious, contagious, or communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases; mental health drugs and counseling; pregnancy and birth control; and sexual assault. Under SB 1004, insurance companies would be criminally charged if they let parents know their health insurance policy was paying for these procedures for their minor children.

And if the insurance company sends a bill or other correspondence (Explanation of Benefits?) addressed to the child, what happens with all of that? There's NO legal issue with parents opening/reading the mail of their minor kid. It's a pretty gray area for a live-at-home non-minor, or a kid at college who still gets mail at home, even if he expressly doesn't give them permission to open it. Would any of that open the insurance company to charges of "Letting the Parents Know"?

If there is no bill/notification, what's to stop the doctor's office from billing insurance for all sorts of procedures (whether actually completed or not), when they can just hide them from the parents? Easy money, and who's gonna file a complaint? Turn that $50 cough visit into a $500 "sex-change" consultation, and bam, bonus profit! Even if the insurance company tries to investigate fraudulent billing, the only one with any evidence is the kid, and what parent is gonna let their kid talk to the insurance company? The insurance company probably couldn't even ask to talk to the kid - that likely falls under "Letting the Parent Know"! The only one with a story to tell is the doc - who obviously isn't gonna admit to filling any false billing codes. Nope, we definitely talked to the kid about all sorts of stuff! Parents can't know. Case closed. Free $$$!

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