National Center for Transgender Equality says, "Additionally, most public and private health insurance plans, when they are available to transgender people at all, have discriminatory exclusions for transgender-related care that often is used to exclude virtually all care."

Anyone with insurance stories? I looked at my policy procedures book, but no mention of TS, TG, or SRS. I'm a bit reluctant to contact them for fear of raising a flag.

Anyone familiar with TriCare,...the healthcare system for US military members.

Janelle

My insurance (Kaiser Permanente) has a written exclusion for transgender care, but they will continue to cover treatment for "complications" from treatment of uncovered care.

For example:

My insurance will not pay for my HRT, however they will cover the monitoring of my HRT (blood tests, etc)
My insurance will not pay for my SRS, however they will cover the monitoring of my SRS (OB/GYN, etc)

With the passing of the new US healthcare legislation, being dropped for coverage due to "pre-existing" or uncovered conditions is less of a worry.

If you are still active military, you will probably want to hold off until you ETS, unless you are looking for a discharge. Other than that, I have heard (note: this is 2nd and 3rd hand info) that mil insurance will cover some aspects of transition, if your doc is good at navigating the murky mires of .mil AND insurance company bureaucracy.

Hope that helps.

I have United Healthcare and they have been paying all my HRT, labs, mammograms and bone density scans. All my medical records show the diagnosis as Transgender so nothing is being hidden. I even had my legal name change while with them and had no problem changing my records. Trying to find out if there was a remote chance SRS would be covered I found a few things online showing that they pay for the HRT and labs, but not SRS. Like you I am not eager to call them and discuss it because that is when you would likely get the wife of Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family handling your account.

I don't see the new healthcare program ever covering SRS. Only a few with pre existing conditions will benefit. Otherwise it will just be higher insurance costs, higher taxes, and more of the same. The new health plan creates 16000 new IRS jobs, isn't that what we all wanted to hear to improve our health.

Hugs,
Marsha

I think in the short run Marsha is correct.
It's doubtful SRS will be covered.
If you take a slightly longer view, I'm not so sure.
A lot will depend, at least so I believe, on a couple of factors.
1) The US economy must return to some semblance of full employment, and robust real growth,
This is not a sure thing by any means, as more and more foreign markets are driving the US economy, and market gains do not necessarily result in a rising standard of living.
2) Women must continue to make political gains, and assume more and more control over the levers of power.
This could/will lead to more enlightened policies in all matters sexual, and this should benefit all Transgendered.
So vote for women, especially women with liberal social beliefs, and conservative fiscal philosophies.
This combination offers the best hope in gaining more benefits, and having enough money to enjoy them!!!
As Russians in the old Soviet Union used to say relief is just over the horizon. Of course a cynic might remark the closer one comes to the horizon the more it recedes.