Iowa's Medicaid program will no longer pay for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies for transgender Iowans, under a bill that Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law. The law, House File 1049, bans Medicaid from paying for the services beginning July 1. But it does not ban Medicaid from covering mental health counseling to treat gender dysphoria. Republican lawmakers included the policy in the state's $2.47 billion health and human services budget, which funds Iowa's Department of Health and Human Services, including Iowa's Medicaid program, as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs. The American Medical Society says gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and surgeries, is necessary to treat gender dysphoria, which occurs when an incongruence exists between a person's expressed gender and the gender they were assigned at birth. Tap the link in our bio for more on this story. #Iowa #IApolitics #IAlegis