American Medical Association Supports Transgender Health Care

[Guest]

Found this while doing my transgender News today American Medical Association Supports Transgender Health Care

http://www.tsroadmap.com/notes/index.php/s...#When:04:11:01Z

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Laura

[Guest Seth]

Wait...

So SRS and HRT are covered by insurance now?

[Guest April]

If i read that right then that is TOTALY AWESOME !!!!!!

[Guest]

Wait...

So SRS and HRT are covered by insurance now?

Not exactly. Means they are supporting GID diagnosis which may lead to it. The government and Insurances have not covered GRS saying it is cosmetic. This basically tells them to treat it by the HBIGDA (Wpath) Standards of care as legitimate. This link explains it better. http://www.glad.org./uploads/docs/press-re...-fact-sheet.pdf http://www.glad.org./uploads/docs/press-re..._Resolution.pdf .

Laura

[Guest StrandedOutThere]

On one hand, I am really happy that the AMA has finally taken this important step. On the other hand, I am thinking "What on earth took them so long?".

[Guest Leah1026]

Not exactly. Means they are supporting GID diagnosis which may lead to it. The government and Insurances have not covered GRS saying it is cosmetic.

The ground may shift dramatically when the O'Donnabhain vs the IRS decision comes out. We've been waiting since February 15th for that decision, no idea how much longer it will be. To briefly review:

Rhiannon transitioned and filed her taxes including medical deductions (SRS). The IRS gave her a refund. Upon further review they asked for it back. She refused. It was appealed a couple times-she won, then they won. Then it went to Tax Court last July. The government didn't have a case and looked unprepared. Rhiannon had ALL her ducks in a row and her lawyers made the IRS look silly.

So now we're just waiting. Depending on the scope of the ruling it could be a HUGE victory for us.

http://glad.org/#ro

[Guest April]

That is still enough to give me hope that by the time I get ready for surgery, maybe something will be covered.

[Guest]

For years The HBIGDA (Wpath) Standards if care and the (GID) Gender Identity disorder diagnosis were viewed as optional by some doctors and insurance companies and even some therapists. The DSM IV classification was somewhat responsible for this saying it was a mental disorder. This allowed them to ignore the Medical elements of GID.

"What is the appropriate and accepted treatment for GID?

There is no one course of medical treatment that works for every patient with GID. Instead, the World Professional Association For Transgender Health, Inc. (“WPATH”) (formerly known as “The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc.”),iii has established internationally accepted Standards of Care (“SOC”) for the treatment of people with GID.iv The current SOC recommend an individualized approach, consisting of a medically appropriate combination of mental health care, hormone therapy, and/or sex reassignment surgery.

For many, hormone therapy may be sufficient to treat GID. Others will require a different therapeutic regime, including surgery. The correct course of treatment for any given individual, though, is best decided between the treating physician and the patient, in order for the patient to achieve genuine and lasting comfort with his or her gender. Therefore, such a therapeutic regimen, when prescribed or recommended by qualified practitioners, is always medically necessary.

Have WPATH’s Standards of Care (“SOC”) been proven to work?

An established body of medical research studies demonstrates the effectiveness and medical necessity of mental health care, hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery as forms of therapeutic

treatment for many people diagnosed with GID.v However, without the removal of discriminatory exclusions of GID-related medical care in insurance plans, doctors will be unable to effectively treat their patients. Prohibiting such categorical exclusions of coverage instead places the medical decision-making process back where it should be—between the doctor and patient.

The AMA backing is HUGE because it backs the Medical elements of GID which Insurance companies can no longer ignore. This will have far reaching cause and effect ramifications in the medical and legal arenas in the very near future. The cause and effect of GID will eventually change so that even DR Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard on the DSM V committee due out in 2011 will have to acknowledge it. It acknowledsges our Transgender Standards of Care as recognized International treatment. I predict that this will lead to dropping GID as a Mental disorder and making it a medical one as should have been done long ago. GID is NOT a mental illness but NOT TREATING IT can cause mental issues like clinical depression and epidemic suicide rates. Cause and effect. What came first the chicken or the egg? In fact if anyone is responsible for this it is Reparative therapists, Government and Insurance companies denying us proper treatment. The AMA backing will give us legal aces to use in court. The balance of power has shifted our way for a change.

"Why shouldn’t insurance companies be able to decide for themselves which treatments they choose to cover? How does that constitute discrimination?

Almost all insurance plans categorically exclude coverage for GID-related medical treatment, either through specific exclusions or by deeming GID-related treatments to be cosmetic. Yet, non-transgender patients are often able to secure insurance coverage for these same treatments, including psychotherapy, hormone therapy, breast augmentation and removal, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, and salpingectomy, for different diagnoses. This fact reveals the discriminatory nature of the exclusions.

Even worse, these exclusions are also often used by insurance companies to deny coverage for general health care for transgender patients, even when the care is not related to gender transition. Because transgender patients often have secondary sex characteristics of both sexes (e.g. a transgender man who has not had a hysterectomy), these exclusions can prevent many transgender patients from receiving coverage for medical care related to their birth sex. For example, one transgender man who identified as male with his insurance company and later developed uterine cancer was denied payment for his cancer treatment, because his insurance plan did not “treat uteruses in men.”vi

Such exclusionary clauses targeting transgender patients are not simply wrong, but they also invite other forms of discrimination.

Soon not treating us will be criminal neglect which is exactly what it is. All I can say is it is about time. YAY!!!! Hopefully never again will an EMT be able to refuse us emergency treatment as has been done many times in the past. Is this going to happen tommorrow? No, but soon very very soon. We're finally on a roll. Even Barney Frank and HRC can't sweep us under the rug anymore. The AMA decision adds legitmacy to our cause. Someone finally listened to us. Soon No longer will Transgender people be getting backroom orchiectomies or getting Hormones on street corners. They will all eventually get quality medical care.

Laura

[Guest April]

That will be a day for all of us to celebrate !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

It makes my blood boil to think about the thousands of our transgender brothers and sisters who are now dead from simple lack of treatment. Most of these were 100% treatable and preventable and amounts to criminal benign neglect by the Government and the Insirance companies. When therapists have to lie and diagnose GID as depression instead in order to get paid something is wrong. It's too bad those responsible are not held reasponsible. For far too long we've been treated as a sub class of human beings. Hopefully that's about to change. Unfortunately it;s going to take a few court cases to wind through appeal courts before the right thing is done which is to treat us for something that was never our fault to begin with.

Laura