Transgender Community

Getting my company onboard with trans-healthcare. Seeking advice.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:43:00 GMT

Posted by: eatthosediapers.livejournal.com

Hey TGLJ!

I work for a worker owned company in San Francisco of about 240 workers. A small group of us are trying to develope a proposal for our company to include transgender healthcare as part of our benefits. Our HR department is really good about supporting trans workers access to hormones etc., but does anyone have experience bringing a company into a more complete system of care for trans folks?

Our company has a good track record of trans support (we have several trans people on staff who are well respected) but we are trying to:

-figure out the logistics: Should we basically ask the company to pay out of pocket for things like SRS, orchiectomy, or should we try to appeal to our insurance company?
-Pre-empt discussions about what to include: what's a good way to approach procedures that are seen as "cosmetic" like breast enlargement or FFS?

Again, our company tends to be pretty trans-positive, but I slightly dread conversations about this stuff with cis people. Any info or feedback would be great.

Thanks!
~c

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Buy insurance with transgender coverage?

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:50:00 GMT

Posted by: charlie-ihsan.livejournal.com

Michigan State University is forcing me to have health insurance, because my county health plan isn't enough. :(

If I have to buy it, I'd like to get surgery paid for.

So, anyone have any non-employer-related health insurance that has coverage, or doesn't have exclusions?

Thanks!

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Gender disphoria and MassHealth

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 22:06:00 GMT

Posted by: also-warriors.livejournal.com

I'm applying for MassHealth and it asked if I have any disabilities. I said yes, and they sent back a brochure to fill out. I have other disabilities, but they asked things like "do your medical or mental health problems make it hard to... go to the doctor/visit friends and family/go for a walk/go shopping" and I find all those things difficult for reasons related to gender and disphoria, but most of them are also hard for reasons related to other conditions I have, too. Is it best to list my full info, including something that they may not feel is a disability, and may open me to discrimination, or to only focus on the effects of my more well-established disabilities?

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Quick Question

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:09:00 GMT

Posted by: cykotyks.livejournal.com

I'm starting to get things in order so my partner and I can start testosterone, and the biggest worry right now is the cost.

What I want to know is if anybody has the rough estimates on how much the labs cost - all the preliminary lab work necessary to start HRT - both with and without insurance. My partner is insured, but we don't know what it covers. I may or may not be fully insured because my mother (whose insurance plan I am/was on) isn't really talking to me so I don't know if she actually lost her job or not. If I'm not on her insurance, I'm on the UNH student insurance. And again, I don't know what all either of those would cover. So I'm basically looking for best case/worst case scenarios - hope for the best, plan for the worst.

EDIT: what I mean to say is, how much did it cost you? The more information I have, the better I can plan for this. I'm in the dark and it's making me anxious.

If it makes any difference, we're in New Hampshire, both UNH students, and going through Fenway Health in Boston. Any tips, tricks, or options we should be considering to lower the cost would be tremendously helpful as well.

Thanks!

PS, if anybody can give me a rough estimate of how long this process usually takes (from getting the labs done to having a T prescription), that would also be helpful!

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Direct me if I'm Wrong?

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:28:00 GMT

Posted by: harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com

After reading through all of Humon (DA) and reading This article (It's just a nice article about child care), I realized I know nothing about what life is like for TG people in other countries. Not even Canada or the United Kingdom!

My Grandfather is from India and when I came out to him, he didn't seem to see a problem. He was actually saying things like "this is who you are, it's something inside of you and you have to do it or you'll be unhappy" which tells me something about where he grew up and how.

I tried looking through the community as well as though Google for transgender life in Scandinavia (Finland specifically because he's my favorite character in SaTW) but I couldn't find anything. I'm probably googling it wrong.

If I've just been an eejit, please direct me to the post? Or, if there isn't one and you live in Canada, England, or another country, I'd love to hear what you have to say. I'm looking for information on general life- cultural views, society, medical.

Posted as well in femme_ftm

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Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:48:00 GMT

Posted by: aubreycolors.livejournal.com

Is there anywhere online that explains how the new health care laws in the US will affect transgender people here?

For example I'm looking for in depth answers about... Will SRS be covered? Breast augmentation? etc. -- Please point me there.

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hey ppls,

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:16:00 GMT

Posted by: jackcantdie.livejournal.com

It seems like each time I look through the tags, I either get some variation of the question I am asking but not *exact*. Also, maybe this could be due to not looking in the right tags... so I apologize if this is a question that has already been asked and please feel free to direct me to any previous posts relating to this issue. I have tagged this post under 'insurance', fyi.

My question is, well, I am paying for short-term disability leave through my employer. I also plan to have top surgery around May/June. With this said, I brought up the idea of using my short-term disability to my HR department at work and they say that elective surgery is not covered under short-term disability.

Is this true?

I do not have BCBS (which is the primary medical insurance which my company offers) but I have taken advantage of quite a few benefits with hopes that I would be able to be covered, especially in situations like I mentioned above.

Otherwise, I don't have enough vacation time to allow myself the mandatory 10 day recovery period.

Any suggestions or input?

I also have a hearing problem so talking on the phone is very difficult- it gets quite discouraging to be told to contact certain phone numbers because ultimately, I have to rely on someone else to make the call for me and a) i'm either at work during that time, unable to permit discussion of my personal info or b) it is hard to find someone who is comfortable making such a phone call and/or knowing what to ask.

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Hormone Referral Trouble

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:53:00 GMT

Posted by: luzoscura.livejournal.com

Since deciding to transition, I have been seeing a counselor in hopes of getting a referral to see an endo. After 5 sessions it has become clear that my counselor is not an expert on this matter, however she has been supportive and indicated to me that she would be willing to support my decision to seek HRT. As she has no experience, she has asked me to essentially do my "homework" and tell her what she needs to do and write for this to occur. After speaking to Dr. Hudson's office, an endo in the Atlanta area who is highly recommended by the tg community here, they've told me that the initial consultation and lab work can be up to $400 dollars but it does not require a referral initially. The Dr. may require a referral for actual prescriptions upon receiving results, the referral should indicate a diagnosis of GID.

Well I am actually going to change jobs and move cross-country in a matter of weeks, so I am rather concerned that any insurance provider that I get here on after will deny me any service based on having a pre-existing condition were I to be diagnosed with GID right now.

Essentially my question at this point is, based on your experience, would you suggest that I consult my therapist about diagnosing me as GID in order to have a referral that can carry me over into getting legitimate HRT once I am relocated? Or would it be wiser to hold off on a diagnosis until I am under my future insurance provider in order to avoid lack of coverage due to a pre-existing condition? As a further note, I will be self-medicating at this point regardless and my current insurance provider would not cover HRT anyway, but I want to have that "golden ticket" so that I can see a legitimate Endocrinologist as soon as I am re-settled and can afford it.

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health care exclusion?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Posted by: shrines.livejournal.com

for those in the us or international folks who are particularly savvy about us issues:

i have heard from a few people about trans women's health care being specifically excluded from the health care reform bill that passed in the house this weekend. does anyone know anything about it? i've looked, but haven't been able to find any articles or posts that actually cite where in the bill this is. i've also tried looking in the actual text of the thing, but it's like 2,000 pages of vague bullshit that i just can't bring myself to wade through.

if anyone has any information, that'd be awesome. thanks.

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Health Insurance Question - GID?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:55:00 GMT

Posted by: moondaughter20.livejournal.com

I was wondering if anyone has experience of or knows about having Gender Dysphoria (technically GID) accepted as a valid medical condition by insurance companies. Here's my specific situation:

I live in Canada, but my job has Extended Health, so my medical coverage is largely covered by our group insurer, Pacific Blue Cross. I've been on HRT for over a year and there has been no problem with med costs.

My extended health plan does cover a portion of the cost of a wig for medical reasons.
This spring I had a very expensive custom made hairpiece made for me. I had to take out a bank loan to pay for it but it has finally allowed me to pass and opened the door to me living fulltime. It's vital to me passing.

I decided I wanted to recoup some of that money by applying with PBC for my entitlement for the wig. My GP was unsure of how to proceed so he wrote me a very basic letter saying I needed the wig for medical reasons. Not surprisingly, PBC came back with a request for more information about this medical condition.

I went to my doctor and he wrote a referral now for it being treatment of Gender Dysphoria.
But I raised a concern and he agreed it could be viable, that by disclosing the GID diagnosis, the insurance company may decide that ISN'T a coverable medical condition. What worries me about that is it could twig them to the HRT etc and they may deny all of my expenses related to GID treatment.

So I am wondering if anyone has been approved or denied by insurance companies, esp PBC, for the treatment of GID because it's not considered necessary care or something?

Do you think it might be taking a risk to even disclose that now, or is it something that's worth pursuing? I'd just like a little feedback or experience people might have or know about.

Thanks!
Kerrianne

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Therapist & Hysto questions

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:05:00 GMT

Posted by: thec-of-nv.livejournal.com

Hi,

I’m wondering if anyone can recommend a therapist in either Fredericksburg, VA or near Alexandria, VA who has experience with genderqueer/transgender patients and is queer-positive/affirmative. I’m currently seeing someone who is good for dealing with some other things I have going on (more ‘mainstream’ stuff like family problems) but I feel like she just doesn’t ‘get’ the gender stuff. I don’t know if this is because it’s only been a few sessions, but I just get the feeling that she isn’t going to understand it anytime soon and it’s making me incredibly frustrated and I feel like I waste my time & money (and energy) bringing this subject up with her. So I’d like to find someone who specializes more/is more familiar with gender issues.

I’m also interested in learning more about partial/subtotal hysterectomy or endometrial ablation. I pretty much have my mind & heart made up that I want either procedure (leaning more toward the hysto as I’ve read that ablations at my age (19) might not work too well & have to be repeated). The two main questions I have are 1. how much do these procedures generally cost – with insurance and without; and 2. is there any way I could get a therapist to say that the procedure would benefit my mental health as a way of getting an insurance company to cover at least part of a hysto? Would an insurance company buy that or do I need to have an actual ‘medical’ condition like endometriosis or something? (What if I was diagnosed with PMDD?)

Thanks for any & all help.

X-posted a few places

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No Subject

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:33:00 GMT

Posted by: jackcantdie.livejournal.com

I've been looking around on websites, trying to find a resource that can be of some help to me but I don't have any luck.
Maybe I'm not trying hard enough. I would also call the doctor myself but I'm deaf, so that's an issue.

( The first question I have is..... )

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finding healthcare internationally?

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:53:00 GMT

Posted by: galileah-galile.livejournal.com

I was speaking with a friend who is ftm and he was talking about the difficulty getting health coverage post transition. We got into a discussion of how much better healthcare is in other countries (canada, UK and Europe specifically). He said he'd be interested in finding out if coverage is any easier in these countries. I've been looking online for articles and resources for him online but have had little luck. For anyone who has transitioned outside the US or has recieved healthcare outside the US, can you point me in the direction of any resources to pass along to my friend? Hope this is the appropriate forum to ask. Thanks!

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Debate on Transgender Research Effects

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:18:00 GMT

Posted by: samanthak0805.livejournal.com

I had a 3+ hour debate with my friend the other night. The topic was research on transgenderism that may or may not indicate a physiological "cause" and whether it would be more positive or negative for the trans* community. If not familiar with a theoretical (and currently the popular) thought, please check out the section "So what causes people to be Trans?" at the following URL: http://www.t-vox.org/index.php?title=Trans_101 (It's about half-way down the page - but I think the entire page is an excellent read)

The question, then, is: If they find the cause to be related to some genetic marker which they can map and identify and/or to some "shower" of androgens or other hormonal chemicals in utero which they can accurately time and measure, will the overall effect of this breakthrough be positive, validating our "condition" to institutions that have resisted acknowledgment? For the most part, would we finally get coverage for SRS and other procedures from medical insurance companies? Would we gain consideration for government legislation that no longer includes the religious (and "moral") argument against it?

Or, would the effect be largely negative? After all, with identified genetic markers and/or hormonal shower timeframes and chemicals, the potential to create a "cure" would then exist. If such a "cure" was found and could be implemented in utero or childhood to a trans* individual under parental direction, does this not have serious and frightening negative connotations, virtually eliminating our community by removing the right of control of the individual's body and feelings?

My friend argued the latter and felt the potential negative results should cause concern enough to consider whether the positives may be worth the risk the negatives present. I argued the former and that the positives could exist without the negatives. I further argued that what she was proposing was an extreme violation of human rights. I could not imagine that in this day of rights awareness and activism there would not be such an uproar as to prevent these catastrophic violations.

Of course, we both agree wholeheartedly that we do not have a disease that requires curing. We have a condition (with a newly discovered physical basis, in my scenario) that requires a certain individualized regimen of therapy, HRT, and/or surgery to allow us to exist as both trans* and the gender we wish to be. I don't believe either of us is right or wrong and we probably do agree with the other in many points. It was simply a debate to stir thought.

Does anybody have any thoughts or agreement with either of our positions? Is there information I'm unaware of that may invalidate the entire debate, or even "spin" the debate in general in another direction?

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IBM Canada

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:12:00 GMT

Posted by: aki-no-kaze.livejournal.com

According to the HRC, IBM has surgery coverage in the states... anyone know if that coverage extends to Canadian provences where it is not covered? If anyone knows, great, or if you know who to ask I can send them an email

I "may" have an interview coming up and I would like to know going in (if they dont then I wont bother leaving my current job, if they do then my current employer can go to somewhere very hot)

(x-posted to anywhere I think may have an answer)

EDIT: never mind, got my answer elsewhere... they do not have any additional coverage to what the provence offers

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Intro and question on resources in SFBayArea

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Posted by: sfjennie.livejournal.com

Hi,
My name is Jennie. I am a 38 year old MtF TV living near San Francisco. I am new to this group, and have just recently started my SFJennie lj. I have been dressing femme part time since my early teens, and have just recently started going out in public as jennie.

I am presently not looking to transition fulltime, but I am looking to do what I can to develpe a more androgenous body to make dressing femme more easy. I would like to start electrolisis for my face and to look into hormone therapy.

Can anyone suggest a good place for electrolisis in San Francisco or in the North SF Peninsula?

Also, is there a good clinic for the psychotherapy and endocronology needed to start hormone therapy?
I have health insurance through Kaiser Permanente. Does anyone have any experience with trying to get hormone therapy through them?

Thanks!
Jennie

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Questions on transition

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 17:31:00 GMT

Posted by: girl-inside22.livejournal.com

Hello,

I'm Carrie and I'm a 22-year-old MTF. I'm still pre-transition and am gathering up as much information on transition as I can before I dive into it. I've already done tons of research but there's still some questions that I feel I need ask.

1. Does insurance in Canada cover Facial Feminization Surgery?

2. Is it possible for me to change my name before I even begin therapy?

3. What's the best way to go about changing my name? Is there anything I should know to avoid complications/difficulties regarding name change?

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Prescription plan info?

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:15:00 GMT

Posted by: jenaflynn.livejournal.com

Hello. My company recently switched to BlueCross for our PPO, and our scripts plan was switched to Prime Therapeutics (aka MyRxHealth.com). Any complaints/gripes about either company? I'll be utilizing the benefits for (hopeful) discounts on Estradiol(Estrasorb)/Spiro/Avodart. I had Cigna previously, and they were great, never rejected anything, and the drug discounts were wonderful. (Spiro: 60x100mg for $10, Avodart 5mgx30 for $24, Month supply of Estrasorb for $33)

I'm in Massachusetts (Well, I will be in a few weeks) in case that has any bearing on anything.

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Trans-inclusive health insurance?

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 01:04:00 GMT

Posted by: pirate-poet.livejournal.com

Does anyone know of a model trans-inclusive health insurance policy for colleges/universities?

I am writing recomendations as to how the health insurance policy at my school ought to be revised to be more inclusive of GLBTQ ppl, but I'd rather not re-invent the wheel.

What schools have good/model insurance policies? Or for that matter, any insurance ploicy-- not just for schools-- that could serve as a model?

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DSM-V and "GID" (Gender Identity Disorder)

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 12:22:00 GMT

Posted by: pirate-poet.livejournal.com

So I heard the other day that the DSM-V may not include "gender identity disorder" as the DSM-IV currently does. I heard it may happen in the next 5 to 10 years.

Does anyone know the likelihood of this actually happening?

(x-posted to genderqueer)

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