I believe what you will find is that the intent of the law was to make sure that a Dr or facility did not deny treatment based on GID. For example they could not refuse to help you after a car accident
Until the AMA endorses surgery as "necessary" rather than cosmetic I doubt it will become a law and then only if the company does not disallow it with their insurance carrier.
http://www.aetna.com/cpb/data/CPBA0615.html Note: Most Aetna plans exclude coverage of sex change surgery (gender reassignment surgery, transgender surgery) or any treatment of gender identity disorders. Please check benefit plan descriptions.
Aetna considers sex reassignment surgery medically necessary when all of the following criteria are met:
Member is at least 18 years old; and
Member has criteria for the diagnosis of "true" transsexualism, including:
Life-long sense of belonging to the opposite sex and of having been born into the wrong sex, often since childhood; and
A sense of estrangement from one's own body, so that any evidence of one's own biological sex is regarded as repugnant; and
Wishes to make his or her body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormone treatment; and
A stable transsexual orientation evidenced by a desire to be rid of one's genitals and to live in society as a member of the other sex for at least 2 years, that is, not limited to periods of stress; and
Does not gain sexual arousal from cross-dressing; and
Absence of physical inter-sex of genetic abnormality; and
Not due to another biological, chromosomal or associated psychiatric disorder, such as schizophrenia; and
Member has completed a recognized program at a specialized gender identity treatment center as evidenced by all of the following:
The member has successfully lived and worked within the desired gender role full-time for at least 12 months (so-called real-life experience), without periods of returning to the original gender; and
Unless medically contraindicated, member has received at least 12 months of continuous hormonal sex reassignment therapy recommended by a mental health professional and carried out by an endocrinologist (which can be simultaneous with the real-life experience); and
A qualified mental health professional* who has been acquainted with the member for at least 18 months recommends sex reassignment surgery documented in the form of a written comprehensive evaluation; and
A second concurring recommendation by another qualified mental health professional * must be documented in the form of a written expert opinion**; and
Psychotherapy is not an absolute requirement for surgery unless the mental health professional's initial assessment leads to a recommendation for psychotherapy that specifies the goals of treatment, estimate its frequency and duration throughout the real life experience (usually a minimum of 3 months); and
Member has undergone a urological examination for the purpose of identifying and perhaps treating abnormalities of the genitourinary tract, since genital surgical sex reassignment includes the invasion of, and the alteration of, the genitourinary tract; and
Member has a recent negative HIV test; and
Member has signed a consent of understanding the proposed Male to Female or Female to Male sex reassignment surgery with its attendant costs, required lengths of hospitalizations, likely complications, and post surgical rehabilitation requirements prior to the planned surgery. If the member is married, the physician may not require divorce but may also require the spouse to sign a waiver of liability form
