Colorado To End Medicaid Coverage Of Circumcision

DENVER -- Colorado will end coverage for routine circumcisions under Medicaid next month, adding to what's become a national debate over the once widely-accepted procedure.

The change, which takes effect July 1, is expected to save the state $186,500 a year.

The issue has been contentious in California, where San Francisco is set to be the first city to hold a public vote on banning circumcision.

Supporters say male circumcision is a form of genital mutilation that parents should not be able to force on their young children.

Jewish and Muslim families are challenging the San Francisco proposal in court, claiming it violates their right to practice their religion and decide what's best for their children.

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Comments

[spacekadet1]

02:04 PM on 06/27/2011

If somebody is old enough to receive Medicaid, I do not understand how they went through life un-circumcised and then suddenly wish to get cut. They need to pay for it themselves. I agree with religiously mandated circumcision and I am thankful my parents had it done to me when I was a newborn, but they paid for it as should everybody else.

[ShoNuff75]

07:35 AM on 06/27/2011

So as a circumcisee(Is that a word?), according to the rhetoric in this comment section, I've been mutilated, brutalized, abused, disfigured, tortured and damaged. How can I ever live a normal life!? I'm a cripple! Oh the evil that's been done to me by my awful barbaric parents! I'm gonna need so much therapy! Hey wait, can I get a handicapped parking permit now?

I know sarcasm is bad but I can't help myself.
Except for the handicapped parking permit. I wants that.

[ramp613]

02:24 PM on 06/27/2011

Ridicule and sarcasm are sometimes the only way for people to not recognize that some HAVE been damaged and traumatized by infant circumcision. It's a coping mechanism; it keeps you from looking squarely at what infant circumcision has cost others.

[ShoNuff75]

03:19 PM on 06/27/2011

I've read so far about how damaged I am, how I've been mutilated, how being circumcised is on par to losing my sight or hearing, etc, etc.. And now, you come along and tell me I'm traumatized, and that my poking fun for your overreacting, is a coping mechanism to deal with all the harm circumcision has cost mankind. You don't think that's just a bit overboard? Just a little bit? My bottom line is this, If you don't like it, spare your children the lifetime of trauma that you think circumcision would put them through. However, it is vile and awful of you to presume to take that decision, which is usually religious in nature, away from another parent. I don't believe it should be covered by the state. Also, for the record, I'm a devout Atheist but I still believe in freedom of, and freedom from religion.

[Genders]

05:33 PM on 06/27/2011

Yes you have bee mutilated. You were so young you don't remember the trauma. God know what effect it has on people to hurt them so badly when they are so young.

http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/spectator.htm "In four of the nine circumcisions that I have seen, the baby didn't cry. He just seemed to be suddenly in a state of shock!"16 Studies demonstrate that even though an infant may not cry during circumcision, the stress hormone level in the blood still increases dramatically, and medical researchers consider this change to be the most reliable indicator of pain response.17 Therefore, lack of crying does not mean that the infant feels no pain. It could mean that he is withdrawing from unbearable pain.
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/larue.html
http://www.noharmm.org/choices.htm excellent pics showing how extreme modern circ is.
http://www.cirp.org/library/history/
http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/info.htm jews are not supposed to mutilate or change the body.

[seraphimblade]

11:14 AM on 06/25/2011

And I'm proud of my state today.

It's wrong to mutilate any infant's genitals, regardless of the infant's gender or the reason why. If the kid grows to 18 and wants to make their own decision to have the procedure done, by all means, they can go right ahead then.

[pa30]

09:34 AM on 06/25/2011

Great.Its amazing that Medicaid financed it in the first place,especially when its an unnecessary mutalation.

[deluk]

06:17 PM on 06/25/2011

in Europe the national health services won't finance it for that reason, one of the reasons that it's virtually died out.

[ramp613]

11:57 PM on 06/25/2011

In some Scandinavian countries, it's illegal, just like female genital cutting.

[StrawHat]

03:11 AM on 06/25/2011

Good. Taxpayers shouldn't be funding the wholly unnecessary mutilation of infants' sexual organs. It's barbaric and it will be illegal world-wide some day.

[detroitblkmale30]

08:30 AM on 06/25/2011

Its not mutilation and it will never be illegal world wide, it wont even be illegal US-wide

[StrawHat]

12:51 PM on 06/25/2011

Cutting the tips of baby-penises will someday be as abhorrent and reviled as foot-binding, branding slaves or any other sick, senseless mutilation of the perfectly normal, healthy human bodies of those who are too weak, powerless or young to defend themselves. It's barbarism.

[Genders]

05:38 PM on 06/26/2011

Of course it's mutilation, you are in serious denial. It's also torture.

[bully2]

01:04 AM on 06/29/2011

It's fascinating that Colorado is taking this controversial step to save a paultry $186,000 annually. While I don't know for certain, I believe that the feds have already passed legislation to end Medicaid funding of abortion coverage. So, to that end, rather than pay for a comparitively inexpensive legal abortion procedure, they would rather have taxpayers foot the bill for a normal vaginal delivery coming in at $6,000 to $10,000, depending where in the country it occurs (that's just the charge for the OB, never mind the charge for the federally mandated minimum 48 hour stay in the hospital). If it's a C-section, the price jumps by a minimum of 30%, just for the OB, and the federally mandated MINIMUM hospital stay goes from 48 hours to 96 hours. Then of course if it's Medicaid picking up the tab for these procedures, presumably that means adding "junior" to the Medicaid roster as well, and all the expenses that entails. All because the feds don't want to pay for a legal medical abortion in the first trimester. This is fiscally sound to the Republicans? The math doesn't seem to work. But then, you can't fix stupid.

[Rosanne Smithe]

10:27 PM on 06/24/2011

Why are these buggers so attached to their foreskins? Methinks they're racists and pretending they care about the foreskins of their "brothers" Bottom line, if you don't want your son to be circumcised, don't let the doctors do it. If you're a moslem or a jew, you will have it done for religious purposes.

[ramp613]

12:55 PM on 06/25/2011

Bottom line, it's a personal decision. And the person to make the decision is the person with the foreskin in question. And not his parents.

[Genders]

05:39 PM on 06/26/2011

It's torture and mutilation, it should be illegal to do it to a child. It's obvious.

[Barefoot Intactivist]

09:58 PM on 06/24/2011

Congratulations, Colorado. 18 states down (de-funding unlawful child genital cutting), 32 to go.

~Barefoot Intactivist

[ThinkForYourself3]

07:49 PM on 06/24/2011

I can play Junk Science with the best of you.

Circumsized men are more 5,000 times likely to be suicide bombers than natural men.

100% of all the 9/11 hijackers were circumsized. Therefore we need a No Foreskin / No Fly Law.

[ThinkForYourself3]

07:36 PM on 06/24/2011

How many of the 9/11 hijackers were circimcized?

[ArthroughpadNY]

07:19 PM on 06/24/2011

I'd like a slight trim at the top, and cut the sideburns and back short. Just sayin.

[mike gieser]

07:01 PM on 06/24/2011

If it's all and only about spreading disease, why not just cut the whole thing off? My body; my choice.

[LintLass]

06:52 PM on 06/24/2011

This is noting about religion, but 99 percent of these mutilations aren't even *that.*

Just for money.

How bout.....

NO.

[LintLass]

06:43 PM on 06/24/2011

Ignored, again, is the fact that the vast majority of circumcisions in America are *not* religious, they are a two-thousand dollar medical procedure sold for cash to people whose religion it *ain.t.*

Even if they have no food.

[theroundearth]

05:05 PM on 06/24/2011

Male circumcision can be painless, like a kidney surgery is, but it is unnecessary.

What is erroneously called 'foreskin' is NOT JUST SKIN.

[LintLass]

06:35 PM on 06/24/2011

Whatever the details, I can't see our civilization as one crying out for 'More penis-damage!'

Ain't exactly been a rose-garden, has it?

[Genders]

05:41 PM on 06/26/2011

It is not painless. http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/spectator.htm "In four of the nine circumcisions that I have seen, the baby didn't cry. He just seemed to be suddenly in a state of shock!"16 Studies demonstrate that even though an infant may not cry during circumcision, the stress hormone level in the blood still increases dramatically, and medical researchers consider this change to be the most reliable indicator of pain response.17 Therefore, lack of crying does not mean that the infant feels no pain. It could mean that he is withdrawing from unbearable pain.
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/larue.html
http://www.noharmm.org/choices.htm excellent pics showing how extreme modern circ is.
http://www.cirp.org/library/history/

[subliminalpanda]

03:06 PM on 06/24/2011

Good. It's about time that the government got out of the genital mutilation business. If religious parents want to mutilate the genitals of their children, they can pay for it themselves.

[darsemnos]

05:10 PM on 06/24/2011

No, all circumcisions should be banned outright. Neither parental nor religious rights extend to the unnecessary surgical alteration of a child's genitals. Our society needs to grow up and ban all forms of genital mutilation and give men the same protection women have, without any religious exception, just as for women.

[ramp613]

12:12 AM on 06/26/2011

Genital cutting for women is legal. Genital cutting on minor females, in any form, is illegal.

Adults can do what they want to their own genitals.

[detroitblkmale30]

08:32 AM on 06/25/2011

its not mutilation. They will pay for it. I know I will.