Every State Can Implement Transgender-Inclusive Health Coverage

[Natasha]

Every State Can Implement Transgender-Inclusive Health Coverage

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2013/02/15/53599/every-state-can-implement-transgender-inclusive-health-coverage/
2/15/13
Andrew Cray

Transgender people have consistently been subject to health care coverage policies that arbitrarily cut off access to the care they need. State policymakers in Oregon, however, have recently stepped up to end this kind of discrimination.

It is no secret that pervasive bias and discrimination have pushed transgender Americans to the margins of society. Health insurance coverage has been no exception. While many people are able to rely on health insurance coverage to offset some of the costs of both routine and emergency health care, insurers have frequently relied on outdated assumptions about transgender people in order to justify categorical exclusions—limitations and exceptions to services offered under a health insurance plan— denying them coverage for medically necessary care, even when those services are provided to other people enrolled in the plan.