Does medicaid in NC cover infant circumcision?

Answer 1

Don't take this as definitive information; you must contact Medicaid in Florida for the absolute accurate information. But in general, medical plans do not cover routine circumcision. This is because medical plan administrators understand that routine circumcision is elective and cosmetic in nature. It is likely to be different if there is some medical indication that infant circumcision is necessary. Hygiene is often cited as a justification for circumcision, but intact men can and do learn to care for themselves adequately.

I am not a medical doctor, but I wouldn't take one doctor's opinion that there is a medical indication for the procedure. A condition known as physiological phimosis (the simple presence of a foreskin that does not retract, where the condition is part of normal development and not indicative of a medical problem) exists for virtually every newborn male. This is normal and expected, and many physicians consider physiological phimosis to be normal even as late as puberty. Pathological phimosis, the same condition as stated above but with the complication that it is causing a medical problem, cannot be diagnosed at birth for a normal healthy newborn, since it is not expected that a newborn boy will have a fully separated foreskin in the first place. When phimosis hasn't corrected itself naturally in an older boy or young man, where retraction of the foreskin is painful or cannot happen at all, then there may be other treatments to consider before going with surgery. If all other options have failed or have been ruled out, then by all means a clear medical indication would lead one to opt for circumcision.

If you are considering circumcision as an option simply because it is frequently done, please take time to study about it, its actual benefits and possible negative outcomes. Perhaps the boy will later appreciate having been given the chance to choose for himself whether or not he wants healthy and functioning tissue removed from his penis for cosmetic benefit. Routine circumcision in the US in declining year after year as many think it should. There is some strength to the argument that we should be allowed to keep the bodies we are born with, excluding medical necessity.