will insurance cover any transgender medical cost or hrt?

[fwagodess]

Different story in Indiana--I can't think of one health insurance company that will cover any transgender-related medical costs.

Unless any transgendered Hoosier (a person from Indiana) can stump me, then feel free to post a reply.

[tekla]

Insurance companies will pay whatever they are contracted for.  The more you want, the more you pay.  Every few years when we have our benefits meeting it gets pretty heated - are we going to cover braces, do we cover health club memberships and the like.  Currently we cover HRT, but not SRS or FFS.  Its all in what you contract for.

[joannatsf]

Insurance companies will pay whatever they are contracted for.  The more you want, the more you pay.  Every few years when we have our benefits meeting it gets pretty heated - are we going to cover braces, do we cover health club memberships and the like.  Currently we cover HRT, but not SRS or FFS.  Its all in what you contract for.

I think the coverage issue may change.  C&C San Francisco paid a big premium increase when they began to cover SRS.  The cost went down after several years as only a very small number of people took advantage of it.  There was a piece in the Chomical about it a couple years ago.  UCSF started providing transition benefits a little over a year ago.  I'm fairly well connected there but I've heard nothing about anyone taking advantage of the coverage.

What really strikes me as strange is that a major medical center, always in the top 10 nationwide, offers nothing in treatment for GID.  It's located in what may be the TG capital of the world yet provides no services, other than those one may obtain from a PCP in its faculty practice.

While I'm bitching about the place, I should say that it's a great institution and I'm proud to be a part of it.

[tekla]

Its a cost benefit deal, for the people I know, like a person who was a BoA VP at the time, paying out $80K over a few years was not much compared with what he/she was making in pay.  But I'd be real reluctant to shell that out for someone working for minimum wage.  The cost of the coverage for them, is more than they are worth as an employee.