An effort to bar the use of state taxpayer dollars to pay for sex change surgeries and other transgender services in Pennsylvania ran aground this week after lawmakers were confronted with an inconvenient truth:

Their own, taxpayer-funded insurance plan covers the very same things.

House Bill 1933's prime sponsor, Rep. Jesse Topper, confirmed Wednesday he has pulled his bill back for amendments that would extend the proposed ban on transgender services to all tax-funded coverages.

As it stands, Topper's bill covered the state's two largest insurance programs, Medicare and CHIP, the Childrens Health Insurance Program.

"I am looking for a way to make sure the law includes all taxpayer dollars and when we find that way, I anticipate the bill being ready to run," the Bedford County Republican told PennLive in an email.

"To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. This is a very difficult and complex issue and I will continue to work towards a solution."

The transgender issue got rolling earlier this fall, when the Legislature turned its attention to a periodic reauthorization of CHIP, which provides health insurance to children in low- and moderate-income families whose income is too high to qualify for standard medical assistance programs.

Members of the state Senate inserted language that would have barred CHIP coverage from paying for any transgender services, which Gov. Tom Wolf's administration authorized last year in keeping with new federal regulations springing from the Affordable Care Act.

That expansion has drawn opposition from some social conservatives.

Opponents of extending this coverage say they object to seeing public funding used for any medical services, including surgery, for what many experts still consider a psychological problem.

The Senate bill was later scaled back to permit CHIP to be used to cover counseling services, drugs like so-called "puberty blockers" and other costly treatments that can help kids with gender identity issues.

But the irreversible physical step of sex reassignment surgery would still be barred.

Not wanting a potential wedge issue to jeopardize coverage for the larger CHIP population, the House stripped the Senate's transgender language from the CHIP authorization last month, with a promise to take up the issue separately.

That was Topper's bill, which had been scheduled for floor action this week.

But that debate was derailed after internal Republican caucus discussions brought to light the fact that members' own families would be continuing to receive this coverage.

This week's postponement brought a mixture of relief and frustration to LBGTQ activists and allies who have been rallying in opposition to the bill.

"Rather than using this time to carefully consider the bill's impact, they are instead considering ways to exclude even more people from accessing medically necessary health care services," said Elizabeth Randol, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

"This is a cruel and spiteful response. This terrible idea should never again see the light of day."

But if the issue does return in 2018, other advocates said, they'll be ready for a fight.

Not everyone needs all types of medical care, noted Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Washington D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.

But when they do need a type of medical care, "we give people the care that they need," she said, "... and that should be between a patient and their doctor, not legislators moralizing over who is and is not deserving of basic medical care."