New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said Medicare for All should cover gender reassignment surgeries on Sunday.
"Absolutely. We have to respect everyone's medical needs," de Blasio said at New York City's pride parade, when asked if the procedure should be covered in a Medicare for All system, according to comments reported by the Daily Caller. "If someone needs a surgery to be full and to live their life fully — the idea is a health care system that actually serves everyone to the fullest, not a health care system that rations and causes people to struggle to get just a little health care."
.@BilldeBlasio tells me gender reassignment surgery should be paid for by Medicare for All #NYCPrideMarch pic.twitter.com/7fC2NbQm9A
— Zak Hudak (@cbszak) June 30, 2019
Last week, fellow Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said his health care plan would publicly fund abortions and argued for helping transgender individuals access abortion.
"I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice. And what means is just because a woman, or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community — a trans female — is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t exercise that right to choose. So I absolutely would cover that right to have an abortion," Castro said at the first Democratic debate.
De Blasio has struggled to gain traction in the Democratic primary with polls showing him averaging less than 1 percent support. MSNBC pundits blasted his debate performance last week, saying he came off as an "obnoxious guy" talking loudly at a bar.
Miami Democrats also slammed de Blasio last week after he quoted Cuban-Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a rally at Miami International Airport.