Insurance help?

[JackieOD]

I've been looking for insurance for a while now, and I applied for a policy through Blue Cross/Blue Shield today. I need insurance for both general medical needs (emergencies, check-ups, etc.) as well as help with the costs of HRT, which I'll (hopefully) be starting in the next couple of months. The problem is that I'm completely clueless when it comes to insurance and I'm anxious about whether or not I've made the right choice in policy. I can cancel this policy within the next 15 days before I make my first payment.
So, if there's anybody out there who knows a little more about insurance than I do or has had some relevant personal experience, I would really appreciate some help!

Thank you!

[Jumpingcats]

I was reading the various topics and noticed this one, I think i have an response.

If your insurance policy came with a book or a PDF in the back you can look at whats excluded. I actually just took out a private insurance policy myself with Blue Cross/BS and it says in the exclusions anything related to transexual care is excluded , i'll see if I can copy and paste what they have written, just a sec

Ok here " Transsexual treatment,surgery,medications and related services" are not covered, and it even has a warning that this is just a small list (A full two pages of exceptions they won't cover) and to contact them for the full-list. But your plan could be different from mine. Also pre-existing conditions won't be covered for a full year, and I think they might consider being transgender a pre-existing condition, especially if you've seen a therapist before you got the plan.

But you should check the documents that include details about the plan and maybe call them to find out.

[Dee]

Seeing this post enouraged me to double-check for a ist of exclusions from my policy, but I'm pretty certain BC/BS (MA) does over hrt and therapy. I'll update once I hear back with the full list of exclusions.

Edit:  I haven't heard back yet, but I did a search for "blue cross massachusetts transsexual care," and the third link down gave a list of insurance companies and plans that do offer coverage for treatment.  Still frustrating, because for as liberal as the BC/BS MA policy reads, it's just vague enough that I can't tell if I have this policy...

[monica93304]

If we had socialized medicine the odds would be good of being covered...

That being said, I'm on the same boat. No insurance. I don't know how or if the affordable care act will help TG folks at all.

I have a friend that works for Kaiser and she told me a couple of months back that they plan on covering TG medical services including SRS.

Kaiser is way too expensive for me with a monthly salary of $2000 per month (take home).  So for now I will continue with my General Practitioner for my regular health care @$75 per visit and under "informed consent" deal with my endo.

[Dee]

So BC/BA MA does cover tg related treatment, but only under certain group policies. Unfortunately, in my case, I have an individual policy, so its not covered. But as far as hrt goes, I'm told its typical practice for physicians to prescribe with tact.

I do have the option to pay into a MassHealth policy, but BC/BS will still end up the better bargain, when you consider the cost of therapy, too...

Hope this helps!