Should The Government Pay for a Boob Job? How About a Transexual's Boob Job?

[Shana A]

Should The Government Pay for a Boob Job? How About a Transexual's Boob Job?

http://www.queerty.com/should-the-government-pay-for-a-boob-job-how-about-a-transexuals-boob-job-20091012/

Normally we wouldn't give the thumbs up to asking the government to pay for elective cosmetic surgery, like a breast enlargement. But we're not sure where we stand when the person making that request is a MTF transexual woman, and when she lives in a country (Britain) that provides health care for "gender dysphoria sufferers."

A woman identified only as "C" has not had gender reassignment surgery (read: no "bottom stuff" done), but is on hormones and has had other treatments to appear feminine. She's been living as a woman for the past 10 years. Since 2006, she's been trying to get the government's National Health Service to pay for her breast enlargement (or rather, "breast creation," since she has nothing to enlarge just yet.) On Oct. 20, a court plays host to a hearing on whether denying C's surgery amounts to sex discrimination. Telegraph:

[The None Blonde]

Heh, i hope she wins... because momma wants some brand new bags (of saline) lol, i'm half kidding... I wouldn't say no... but im not desperate. A case like this will set president.... who knows what follows?

[Suzy]

Here again, the government is more concerned with setting a precedent than in doing the right thing.

Some things just never change.

Kristi

[Allamakee]

I wonder how much of the problem has to do with Ms. C having lived as a woman for more than ten years already?  If she had applied for the BA near the beginning of her transition, would there have been so much fuss?  I'm thinking that it might have been seen as medically necessary early on at that point.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[Britney_413]

I disagree. I would like breasts some day but I am not going to ask someone else to pay for them. What people seem to forget is that asking the government to pay for something is actually asking your fellow taxpayers to pay for it. If she has spent ten years living as a woman, maybe she could have saved just $1 per day towards her breast implants. That would be $3,650. Life is not easy being trans but it also isn't easy for a lot of people for a lot of other reasons. I don't understand this mentality with a lot of people who believe they are entitled to "free" stuff. There is nothing free. If you don't pay for something, someone else is. Here in the U.S., most private insurers will not pay for breast enlargement but there is the option of health savings accounts where someone can regularly deduct so much of their paycheck to a tax-free account and then when it is large enough, then they can afford implants.

I believe that for the most part if you want something bad enough, you can eventually get it. You simply have to be serious enough about it to devote the time, money, and effort in getting it. I cannot afford a $7,000 boob job at this time but I also have been buying $5 coffees every year for the past five years. That is $9,125 right there. I'm not complaining because I chose how to spend my money. I'm also not going to ask government to bail me out for my own mistakes. Personal responsibility.

[Dianna]

One needs to be financially responsible themselves for the BA.

It was a surgery I had when I was 18/19 yo and it seemed like it cost big $$.  It did.

We have a similar health system in Australia to the British model, but it does not cover augmentation mammaplasy (breast enlargement).