Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I'm on the front page!

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2014/August/27/With-Coverage-Through-Obamacare-Transgender-Woman-Opts-For-Surgery.aspx

Good for you, girl! Thank you for being out there representing us.

That's you? Awesome! I just finished reading that on a news site I check about an hour ago and I had no idea it was someone here on Susan's! :)

Congratulations!

That is great front page girl! You are so smart & such a nice woman.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

I read this the other day because someone posted it on facebook :) So cool that it's actually someone on this forum!

Very inspiring & hopeful for many of us who hope that healthcare reform leads to better trans health care!

Quote from: pianoforte on September 05, 2014, 12:18:55 AM
Awesome, awesome, awesome.

I read this the other day because someone posted it on facebook :) So cool that it's actually someone on this forum!

Very inspiring & hopeful for many of us who hope that healthcare reform leads to better trans health care!

You know, I don't think that's so surprising. Susan's is full of transpeople who put themselves out there. With a few famous exceptions I would pretty much expect that, if a transperson is putting themselves out as an example rather than hiding, I probably know them from here. I bet some of the famous ones are here, too, just not out about being famous.

Quote from: Dee Walker on September 05, 2014, 08:21:18 AM
You know, I don't think that's so surprising. Susan's is full of transpeople who put themselves out there. With a few famous exceptions I would pretty much expect that, if a transperson is putting themselves out as an example rather than hiding, I probably know them from here. I bet some of the famous ones are here, too, just not out about being famous.

Everything you just said rings true... however, I'm still just shocked that I was lucky enough to stumble into a place like this and be among such amazing individuals who are doing great things to raise awareness and acceptance :)

Thanks everyone I appreciate all your comments :) I hope to be able to follow up that story soon with "the rest of the story" once insurance is sorted out.

Any news?  I had not read this story until today, and checked the forum to see if it had already been posted.  Happily surprised to find the story is about one of our own girls here at Susan's!

Excellent!!

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I'm so happy for you! That's great, and now finally, you can be yourself! :)

Quote from: Orihime on August 25, 2014, 01:15:14 PM
I'm on the front page!

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2014/August/27/With-Coverage-Through-Obamacare-Transgender-Woman-Opts-For-Surgery.aspx

I can't access the site. Is there another public source for the article?

That is awesome news! I just wish there was some way that those of us who have employer sponsored plans than we pay even more for, could get them to mandate universal coverage for SRS. I'm just jealous but so happy for you.

Hugs,

Another source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/transgender-surgery-obamacare_n_5711267.html

Thank you Devin. 

So I'd like to know if you finally got your insurance to pay some of the costs? 

I've got BC/BS as well, but since it's a federal plan and not CA based, it still excludes anything related to being TG.  We do have one plan through Aetna, but now it's too late to switch.  Either, I hang on until next open enrollment to switch or I hope that the federal BC/BS program changes next year to include TG coverage.  Otherwise I'm not too worried; because, I'm going to wait a few years until I've been on hormones a couple of years. 

-Alana

What kind of plan did you get?

Just awesome!   Thanks for posting that.

I'm on Blue Shield of California.  It paid about 40% at the end of it all.  I'll be writing up a blog post sometime in the future on it.

Quote from: Orihime on January 10, 2015, 04:33:38 AM
I'm on Blue Shield of California.  It paid about 40% at the end of it all.  I'll be writing up a blog post sometime in the future on it.

Very much looking forward to the blog. I definitely need to do some extra policy research. I wouldn't had dreamt in a million years it would cover GRS until I saw your post. So thank you for that. You may of saved me around 15k in the future :)

Quote from: Orihime on January 10, 2015, 04:33:38 AM
I'm on Blue Shield of California.  It paid about 40% at the end of it all.  I'll be writing up a blog post sometime in the future on it.

That's really not too bad. Did you choose your own surgeon, or did they choose one for you?

Hi Devin,
Congrats on getting surgery! I remember reading the article about you last fall. The wording in the article seemed a bit confusing to me in that it seemed like it was saying that Obamacare prevents transgender discrimination with insurance but it really seems like they mean the California law prevents it.

I know that Obamacare says that companies can't discriminate based on transgender reasons but nothing has really been said that it includes surgery just that companies can't block transgender people from being covered for things that anyone else would be covered for. In my mind if an insurance company covers vaginoplasty for a non-transgender person(I realize it's quite different) then it shouldn't be allowed to block that for a transgendered person but I know that it doesn't work that way...yet. Or does it? Maybe there was some policy change I missed? I feel like I'm very researchy and know the latest on things related to this since it matters a lot to me.

I work for a company with a self-funded plan so unless something federally prevents this discrimination then my corporate insurance won't cover it. I do live in Massachusetts though which just recently said that private insurance has to cover it so I think I can opt out of my work plan and buy my own.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!! Congrats again!