Discrimination by NYS Health Care Exchange(?)

[theadanielle]

So this is a little complicated, bear with me.  Before I transitioned fully, i.e. November of 2013, I signed up for Medicaid health insurance through the NYS Health Exchange.  I was supposed to have Medicaid effective January 1, 2014.  It ended up taking a long, long time to get the insurance, though, because I had to prove I had no income.  I had left my job in July 2013, so my income was 1/2 of what it had been the previous year, 2012.  The Exchange kept generating letters saying my stated income didn't match federal records (duh!  I lost my job, people of course it doesn't match).  At any rate, we went in circles for a long time before i finally got approved, and I was supposed to have Medicaid for 1 year - even if I became re-employed - before the income issue would be revisited and I would have to provide proof of income. 

When I changed my name legally in June, I notified the exchange.  They said my application had to be re-opened to change my name, and therefore began demanding I prove my (lack of) income all over again.  My navigator finally got someone who said I didn't have to, that I only had to submit the name change, because nobody has to prove income twice in one year.  BUT I never got my insurance card with my new name on it. 

NOW They are again demanding I prove my income, and demanding additional documents they never asked for before.  The irony is, if I just keep quiet and keep my insurance under my male name, I will NOT have to provide any of these documents and my insurance will continue as before. 

Is this discrimination?? My head is spinning. 

[Jill F]

It is discrimination because you are being treated differently because you transitioned.  I would think the ACLU and Lambda Legal should be notified.

[BreezyB]

I'm not sure it's actually descrimination but more likely incompetence on their part. Quite simply there will be policy's and procedures which need to be followed following a change of name. Thes should be followed exactly as there stated. I don't know the system your dealing with, but here in Australia if we have an issue with a Government Department, we should first complain via their internal process, their complaints department. I would suggest first obtaining the guidelines/policy/procedure which ever it is which relates to changing your name. Review to see if they have followed it. If they haven't, lodge a complaint, being clear about what your expected resolution is. Once you exhaust the internal complaints process, you are in a position to lodge a complaint with an external body. In Australia we have the State Ombudsman. Thats what I would be doing anyway. I've taken on the best of them in Australia and won 

[Dee Marshall]

New York always has trouble with new programs and this one IS new. You should have seen the hack job they made of medicaid transportation a few years ago. No one ever knows what they're doing, policies aren't settled and people react arbitrarily and make stuff up. This is NOT to say that in your case there wasn't discrimination, but I would bet you that they never even considered someone changing their legal name in the middle of the process and state agencies, in general, tend to try to avoid making policies for us until they're pushed. We finally got a decision on our belief that a transgender resident should be housed according to her gender, not her birth sex.

[tgchar21]

I agree with BreezyB - find out how they handle name changes in general (if you want to ask someone who is cis to contact them to simply ask the procedures for a name change without mentioning anything about being trans* if you're not comfortable with asking yourself). If what they've done to you isn't what they do to people who changed their names for other reasons you have grounds for a complaint.