I am not sure this is such a good idea unless people age 16 can get Medicare.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/medicare-coverage-ban-sex...
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Comments
My therapist informed me of this....
And as I told him, now the challenge is going to be actually finding a surgeon who will take Medicare. And unfortunately, since I don't have straight Medicare, but a Medicare HMO, I'll have to see if the HMO will cover it now. Until I get more information, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
Transsexual surgery with medicare
Ahhh well, 15 years too late for me and I didn't have Medicare at that time anyway. I went to Thailand to cut costs but it was still pretty darned expensive even at that. 'Hopefully' this will help some others though. As Rachel mentioned the trick will be to find a decent SRS surgeon who will take medicare. I doubt many if any will.
Blossom
just some info before i go
on this there are several pros and cons
all this does is LIFT the BAN, it is NOT a guarantee of coverage. it will be a case by case basis, and your doctor(s) have to agree to its necessity for YOUR treatment. and they have to take medicare rates AND medicare also still has to sign off on it
another good thing is that private insurers removed the coverage BECAUSE of the ban. they no longer have that excuse so hopefully it will be an easy fight to get coverage, probably at a higher costing plan, but better than nothing. or the government (who had little to nothing to do with this decision by the way, it was caused by a lawsuit by real advocates for trans persons, and then an INDEPENDENT panel was put in to make this decision. how much if anything the government actually had to do with it is up to debate) actually DOING something proactive and making coverage available mandatory, again, probably at a higher premium plan, but maybe not.
the bad? the backlog is going to INCREASE for procedures, who knows if and when any will actually take place. doctors are going to schedule privately paid, or better paying insurance procedures before the Medicare ones generally. while they wont say this, there will be "lost" paperwork, authorizations etc. at least that is what has happened in the past.
Teresa L.
It turns out that that the trans-woman who
It turns out that that the trans-woman who filed the lawsuit that led to today's historic decision by HHS to end the 33 year ban on Medicare SRS/GRS coverage, Denee Mellon happens to be the roommate of a dear trans friend of of mine. Although I haven't met Denne in person, I hope to when I go to visit my friends in New Mexico and Arizona one of these days. I want to thank her in person for making it possible for me to now be able to complete my transition journey at long last.
Tamara Jeanne
Better late than never coverage
OTOH, if you are on permanent disability one can get medicare earlier. Personally I got done at age 39, still a bit late but better than nothing. Personally I find having late SRS at best a solace. Let's face it, a lot of the more popular stories here involve people who are young or become young as part of gender change. It is not a fun story to read of a change forcing you to become a 65 year old of the opposite gender if pre-change you are, say, a 30 year old. I saw one story of where a TS exchanged bodies with a women who had a terminal disease just to become 'normal'. It is an obvious expression of the desperate desire the author felt but it was extremely depressing to read.
Better late than never indeed....
I'm 52, and view the final surgery as a culmination of a long, frustrating journey, sixteen years of euphoric highs and suicidal lows. A thing to look forward to in the days when people laughed at me as I went down the street. Considering that I until yesterday thought I wouldn't see this day in my lifetime, the exact age in which I finally get that long-awaited surgery hardly matters anymore.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
It's been available
on the NHS for years and the Daily Wail still complains about it while running articles about successful or very pretty transsexual women.
Seems like SRS will never be totally acceptable despite having reasonable outcomes when the diagnosis is correct as the anti lobby will always see it as trivial or cosmetic.
Angharad