Historic Legal Challenge to Medicaid Circumcision

We estimate that there are about 10,000 Medicaid circumcisions a year in Massachusetts. The State Medicaid office pays for these elective, non-therapeutic male infant circumcisions as an administrative policy decision. This costs taxpayers millions of dollars. However, the pertinent federal and state regulations require that all Medicaid paid services shall be medically necessary.

According to Massachusetts law, State officials can be sued to have the court order them to comply with the law. The Circumcision Resource Center is preparing to bring this lawsuit against Massachusetts Medicaid for violating regulations requiring medical necessity. This particular kind of case has not been filed before.

Obviously, the facts are on our side.

·         By definition, an elective, non-therapeutic service cannot be medically necessary.

·         Even if the "potential medical benefits" claimed by circumcision advocates were true, they do not satisfy the regulation requirements for medical necessity. 

·         No organization in the world recommends elective, non-therapeutic male infant circumcision. If it is not recommended, it cannot be medically necessary. 

·         The large majority of the world avoids circumcision unless it is rarely medically necessary or rarely elected by an adult. Aside from these two factors, a dozen international medical organizations have policies opposing circumcision.

Since most other state Medicaid offices also violate regulation requirements for medical necessity, this legal case has great potential to make a significant difference in the practice of circumcision in the U.S. and protect millions of future males from this sexually and psychologically harmful practice!  

(For basic facts about circumcision see https://circumcision.org/male-circumcision-information-summary/ and other links on https://circumcision.org.)

Even if you do not care about circumcisions, you can help us prevent the waste of millions of dollars!

Please contribute what you can to help us pay attorney fees and other costs for this historic challenge to Medicaid circumcision! Donations are tax-deductible.