More Insurance Coverage

This time it is in New York state with Medicaid.

More Medicaid coverage for transgender services
WBFO
By Karen Shakeridge
December 12, 2016

Increased  coverage for transgender medical care and services are taking effect for Medicaid plans in New York. The Department of Health has established that young people, under the age of 18, will now receive coverage for hormone therapy deemed medically necessary, according to the notice filed in the NYS Register.

“Sometimes individuals under the age of 18 require medications in order to bring their mind and their body into alignment with each other,” says Dr. Katherine Blumoff Greenberg, director of the Gender Health Services clinic at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
[…]
The Department of Health also changed Medicaid benefits to include coverage for gender reassignment surgery, for people over the age of 18, who meet certain criteria.  But insurance coverage for surgery doesn’t necessarily equal access.

“Access to surgeons will still be problematic. There are relatively few providers doing these surgeries in the country and no one currently -- although there are plans to have surgeons come on line -- in the New York state system,” Greenberg  says.

The same is true in Connecticut, we do have insurance coverage here with Medicaid but it is also hard to get the coverage needed for not only hormones and surgery but also with standard medical procedures. You have to be an advocate for your health care and know how to appeal when they refuse coverage (see Friday’s post about knowing the code).