Dr. Oz Slams Cost of Care for Trans Minors, Says Penis Surgery ‘Costs 150,000,’ and ‘Extra' for Testicles

Dr. Mehmet Oz is questioning the cost of trans healthcare procedures amid the Trump administration's decision to restrict gender-affirming care for minors — though experts say most children don't undergo those procedures.

According to the Daily Beast, Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Oz criticized what he felt were over-the-top prices for procedures, including a phalloplasty and vaginoplasty, during a Dec. 18 announcement about CMS' decision to partially prohibit hospitals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and operations to minors.

"A vaginoplasty — a procedure a child does not need — costs $60,000," Oz, 65, said, per the outlet. "Shockingly, a phalloplasty, the creation of a penis, costs, on average, in America, $150,000 per child."

"I do believe, with doing some work, that these prices have continued to increase due to increased manufactured demand," he continued. "A scrotalplasty, where you add testicles? That's extra."

Oz's comments differ from the reported costs of several gender-affirming surgeries — most of which are typically not performed on children. The Gender Confirmation Center reports that the price of a vaginoplasty is between $23,000 and $24,500, and the cost of a phalloplasty can range from $35,000 and $50,000.

The Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Gender Surgery and the Gender Confirmation Center both state that phalloplasties and vaginoplasties are not recommended to transgender children under the age of 18, per the Daily Beast.

"It is extremely rare for patients under 18 to receive genital surgery," Transhealthcare.org states, per the outlet. The Gender Confirmation Center states that it does not perform either procedure on children under 18.

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The former TV doctor's comments also came amid an announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services that it would be taking steps aimed at ending transition-related care — or what it has called "sex-rejecting procedures" — for minors.

According to NBC News, the Trump administration's proposals would stop hospitals that offer transgender care to children from receiving federal funding.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a press conference on Dec. 18 that doctors who provide trans healthcare to minors "provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic Oath, endangering the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard."

"The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children who suffer from gender dysphoria," Kennedy, 71, said, per NBC News. "This is not medicine, it is malpractice."

Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

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"We’re announcing a notice of proposed rulemaking that ends taxpayer funding of sex-rejecting procedures for children in Medicaid and CHIP [Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federally funded program for uninsured kids], full stop," Oz added. "We're not going to let taxpayer money go to hurt these children."

Several doctors and other advocates have criticized the new proposal from the Trump administration, saying that the federal government shouldn't have such direct involvement in patient care.

Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told NBC News that the new "policies and proposals misconstrue the current medical consensus and fail to reflect the realities of pediatric care and the needs of children and families."

"Allowing the government to determine which patient groups deserve care sets a dangerous precedent," Kressly said. "Children and families will bear the consequences."

"The Trump administration is relentless in denying health care to this country, and especially the transgender community," Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. "Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and well-being of their children."

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Along with restricting medications and surgeries, Kennedy said the Trump administration would no longer classify gender dysmorphia as a disability and would be enacting regulations on physical gender-affirming aids.

Kennedy said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be issuing warnings to manufacturers of breast binders — often used by transgender youth to minimize the appearance of breasts — threatening to seize products and impose “significant regulatory violations” if they are “illegally” marketed to children.