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A new bill that would provide health insurance coverage for wigs is headed to the state legislature, thanks in large part to the advocacy efforts of local youth who have drawn attention to both the financial and psychological burdens of hair loss.
The proposed legislation, AB 2668, would have licensed providers cover the cost of a wig, up to $750 per year, for an individual if it was for a diagnosed health condition, chronic illness or injury. The coverage would include medical conditions like alopecia areata, an autoimmune skin disease that causes hair loss and affects approximately 80,000 Californians.
While state Assembly member Marc Berman introduced the bill, he credited its creation to the advocacy work of two high school students who met with him last year to discuss the importance of the issue of hair loss in their own lives.
“They talked about the really important role that wigs play in self-esteem and in mental health, especially for youth who are going through hair loss, whether it’s because of alopecia or cancer or other medical conditions,” Berman said, adding that they also discussed the accessibility of wigs, which often is cost prohibitive for patients experiencing hair loss.
One of the students Berman met was Miranda Huang, a Mountain View High School senior who has been living with alopecia since she was 11 years old. Experiencing hair loss at such a young age was extremely distressing, Huang said.
“The way that the disease impacted me the most was in a social setting because hair is so obvious when people don’t have it. And especially going into middle school and being introduced to new people, it was hard for me to sort of tell them and open up about what was going on,” she said.
Huang said the process of regrowing her hair also was stressful, as it would take a long time and would grow back unevenly after applying topical steroids to bald spots on her scalp. “So that was especially difficult because it was obvious when it grew back and also obvious when it wasn’t there,” Huang said. “It really just had a big impact on how I viewed myself,” she added.
Huang’s advocacy work began last year after attending a conference by the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) where she and her mother, Wendy Petka, learned about efforts to get legislation like AB 2668 passed. Deciding to focus at the state level, they researched initiatives in other states before reaching out to local representatives for support.
Sponsored by NAAF, the legislation gained momentum quickly, Petka said, which she credited to her daughter and other advocates who described their personal experiences of hair loss and the impact that financial support for wigs would make for individuals experiencing similar medical conditions.
For Berman, the youth mental health aspect was a particularly compelling reason to back the legislation. However, the bill could face challenges, particularly around the issue of financing it, Berman said, noting that this often was the case when legislation added new health insurance requirements. “But in this case, I really believe that the mental health benefits outweigh the costs,” he said.
Currently, seven states provide health insurance coverage for wigs: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. Only two of them, Minnesota and New Hampshire, offer specific coverage for individuals experiencing alopecia areata.
If passed by the state legislature, AB 2668 would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
Given the large deficit that California is facing, trivial spending proposals like these ar ridiculous. Berman should be ashamed of himself- the pandering to Woke-ness and “hurt feelings” is so obvious. Does this guy do anything of value in his position? How about leading the impeachment of the worthless governor currently in office that is responsible for the decay of California???…