Unpopular President Donald Trump tweeted out a new military policy Wednesday morning: Transgender people serving in the military will no longer be allowed to serve. Trump explained himself—as much as he can ever explain himself—by saying that medical costs were part of the decision process. The Washington Post wondered: how much extra could it possibly cost to have transgender troops? Using a Defense Department-commissioned study from last year, the Post was able to make a few comparisons.
Considering the prevalence of transgender servicemembers among the active duty military and the typical health-care costs for gender-transition-related medical treatment, the Rand study estimated that these treatments would cost the military between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually.
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“The implication is that even in the most extreme scenario that we were able to identify … we expect only a 0.13-percent ($8.4 million out of $6.2 billion) increase in health care spending,” Rand's authors concluded.
By contrast, total military spending on erectile dysfunction medicines amounts to $84 million annually, according to an analysis by the Military Times — 10 times the cost of annual transition-related medical care for active duty transgender service members.
That’s tens times as much money being spent on “dick pills.”
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The military spends $41.6 million annually on Viagra alone, according to the Military Times analysis — roughly five times the estimated spending on transition-related medical care for transgender troops.
Rep. Steve King has been pushing the insane notion that there are transgender people willing to, and capable of, getting into and going through the training to become a Navy SEAL just so that they can get expensive gender reassignment surgery. King and Trump should go and talk with Kristen Beck, the former Navy SEAL who is also a transgender person. My guess is that they would feel the need to take some “medication” to get their testosterone levels up— for courage.