So when the Department of Health and Human Services issued proposed language last month that would make covering transition-related care mandatory under the Affordable Care Act, Levasseur got choked up.
That’s
because the proposed rule extends protections based on gender to health
care. Previously, the same rules, under Title IX, had been extended to
education. Specifically, the rule would prohibit insurers from denying
coverage to people based on their gender identity—a common practice back
when insurers could deny people for the preexisting condition of
“gender dysphoria,” which is the medical diagnosis necessary to
jumpstart medical transition. The rule also will require providers to
treat people “consistent with their gender identity—including in access
to facilities”—so, presumably, a trans man would not be forced to use a
women’s restroom. It would also prohibit doctors from refusing to treat a
person for ovarian cancer simply because they are a trans man who still
has his ovaries, for instance, or prostate cancer in a trans woman with
a prostate.
And finally, the rule would prohibit insurers from
explicitly excluding coverage for “all health-care services related to
gender transition”—including those hard-to-find surgeries.
“This is the most comprehensive health-care protections for transgender people to date,” he said. “It’s massive.”
Transgender? A Doctor Won’t See You Now - The Daily Beast
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