Following the directive of the “ Military Service by Transgender Individuals ” Presidential Memorandum to reinstitute a ban on service for transgender service members, the Secretary of Defense has called for a new study of the impact of transgender service members on “military readiness, lethality, and unit cohesion, with due regard for budgetary constraints and consistent with applicable law.” Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced that he will “establish a panel of experts serving within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to provide advice and recommendations on the implementation of the president’s direction.”
The study follows on the heels of a July 2016 study issued by the RAND Corporation, which found that there are between 1,300 to 6,600 transgender active duty service members. According to the study, the “costs of gender transition-related health care are relatively low” and they had a “minimal” impact on force readiness.
The new study is due to President Trump by February 21, 2018 and is required to include a plan for implementing the ban. The potential ban on transgender service members is still set to go into effect March 23, 2018. However, there is some disagreement over whether the Presidential Memorandum leave the DoD with latitude to protect currently serving transgender service members or not.
The expected health care costs associated with transgender service members remains a significant factor in the policy decision. The RAND study estimated that health care costs would increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually with transgender service members out of an estimated $6.2 billion spent on active component health care spending, which would represent a 0.04% to 0.13% of the budget.