There is an opportunity here. With Musk trusted to reduce excessive and wasteful government spending, and routine circumcision fitting the description perfectly, he’s in a position to move against federal HHS-Medicaid reimbursements for RIC.
Historically, in every U.S. state where its Medicaid program has been successfully pressured to stop paying for RIC, the circumcision rate plunges. Private insurance follows suit. It has been the most effective intactivist effort.
If Musk can be persuaded to act, he can influence Kennedy and Trump.
Caveats: Some Medicaid efforts have been held up or derailed by “expert” doctors on committees who swear up and down that RIC saves taxpayer money by preventing all kinds of maladies. (Of course they never offer proof.) Also, anytime routine circumcision is threatened, some Jewish groups see it as a fundraising opportunity: “Antisemitism is on the rise!” and it works for them. Some are in a position to block any changes. Politics is weird that way.
A few years ago, Musk was a regular Silicon Valley progressive. Now he’s a spending hawk and in many ways an anti-progressive. He could further morph into an intactivist just as easily.
He might already be an intactivist, just testing the waters. That DOGE highlighted a $10 million Mozambique adult-circumcision grant could have been at his direction.
