Trans healthcare would cost the US military a fifth of its Viagra budget.
Donald Trump yesterday said he would not be allowing transgender people to be serving in ‘any capacity’.
He has blamed the ‘medical costs and disruption’ they would cause to the armed forces.
Making the announcement on Twitter, he said:
‘Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.’
Around 12,000 transgender individuals currently serve in the US military. In addition, approximately 134,400 trans adults are military veterans or retirees. Thus, approximately 150,000 trans adults have served in the US Armed Forces or are currently on active duty.
The US Military is the largest employer of trans individuals in the country.
However given how big the military’s budget is, though, research has been done to show how much trans health care would actually cost.
The answer: about a fifth of what it currently spends on Viagra.
Doing the math
This is not to diminish the issue of erectile dysfunction, but to point out the ‘cost’ argument in Trump’s tweet is disingenuous.
Allure, which cites two different studies, one from the New England Journal of Medicine, and another commissioned by the Department of Defense, shows trans health care would cost the military between $2.4 and $8.4 million a year.
This would be 0.0014% of the military’s overall budget.
That is a tenth of the $84 million a year it spends on erectile dysfunction medication, half of which goes directly on Viagra.
Celebrities, politicians and other public figures have spoken out against the decision. Also, transgender veterans and current serving members of the military have spoken out against the Commander in Chief.
