North Carolina Medicaid and the Funding of Routine Non-Therapeutic Circumcisions

Abstract

There is growing sentiment across the United States that tax dollars should not be wasted on medically unnecessary circumcisions. Bills have been introduced in California, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, as well as some private HMOs serving Oklahoma’s Medicaid recipients, to eliminate Medicaid funding of elective circumcision. This paper focuses on the successful efforts of citizens of North Carolina to lobby the state legislature to eliminate Medicaid funding for mutine infant circumcision and instead provide for only the medically necessary needs of its state residents.