Our Health

Let’s face some of us are not in the best of health for many reasons and most of them beyond our control. I know that I need more exercise and to bring my weight down.

Transgender adults with underlying health conditions at risk for COVID-19
Windy City Times
Press Release - Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law
April 22, 2020

An estimated 319,800 U.S. adults who identify as transgender have one or more medical conditions, including asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or HIV, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) has indicated that adults with underlying medical conditions and older adults are at high risk for COVID-19. Approximately 217,000 transgender adults are age 65 and older.

Using data from the U.S. Transgender Population Health Survey, researchers examined characteristics that may increase vulnerability to COVID-19 for the 1.4 million adults in the U.S. who identify as transgender.
I have a triple threat, over 65, and diabetic.
KEY FINDINGS

Health
— 319,800 transgender adults have one or more of the following conditions:
— — 208,500 have asthma
— — 81,100 have diabetes
— — 72,700 have heart disease
— — 74,800 are living with HIV
— Approximately 137,600 transgender adults in the U.S. do not have health insurance.
450,400 transgender adults have not gone to a doctor in the past year because they could not afford it.
— An estimated 587,100 transgender adults have attempted suicide at some point in their lives.
Economic vulnerabilities
— Before the coronavirus pandemic, approximately 667,100 transgender adults lived below 200% of the poverty line.
— An estimated 139,700 transgender adults were unemployed before the pandemic began.
— Prior to the pandemic, 377,000 transgender adults reported experiencing homelessness in the past year.

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Also in this troubling times, many of us have lost our health insurance and it is hard for some of us to get our hormones, this has forced us to have made some bad decisions.

People are sharing hormones on Google Docs and turning to 'grey market' pharmacies to get gender-affirming care during the pandemic
Insider
By Canela López
April 17, 2020

• Transgender and nonbinary people are turning to friends, community Facebook pages, and "grey market" pharmacies to find hormones during the coronavirus pandemic.
• The spread of the virus means many people have lost income, health insurance, or easy access to their doctor's office, all of which has made it more difficult for some to access hormone-replacement therapy.
• HRT is a treatment commonly used for treating gender dysphoria — when a person feels as if their body doesn't match their gender identity.
• While the pandemic has highlighted the practice, hormone sharing isn't new. Many transgender and nonbinary people have long lacked access to gender-affirming care because of systemic factors such as classism, racism, and medical transphobia.

[…]
The coronavirus has spurred the creation of hormone-sharing lists
Since the lockdowns came into effect across the US, mutual-aid networks for queer and transgender people have popped up, including grocery delivery and resources for people with lost incomes.
[…]
Some have turned to grey-market pharmacies where people can buy hormones
Estradiol and spironolactone, HRT medications typically used by transgender and nonbinary people assigned male at birth, can legally be sold online.

While they can be found on list-shares, people also can buy them online via a network of grey-market pharmacies, shipping medication that is not illegal to sell, but medical professionals would not recommend taking it without a doctor's approval.

I have to confess, when I first started hormones in 2004 my insurance would not cover my hormones, so I turned to online pharmacy from an overseas company, but I was getting monitored every three months by my endo.

These unofficial channels have existed for years to help trans and nonbinary people get around red tape
The pandemic has made hormone and needle sharing more visible, but it isn't new.

Access to gender-affirming care — whether it's surgery or access to medication — has never been an easy proposition for transgender and nonbinary people.

Medical insurance companies refused to cover gender-affirming care for decades and many primary-care physicians were unwilling to provide HRT, a medication also prescribed for menopause, to transgender and nonbinary patients because medical guidelines had not changed to include them.

For me, Connecticut had a Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity (CHRO) had a declaratory ruling that we were covered under existing laws, however, my employer was covered ERISA and exempt from state law.

This brings me to the next topic..

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Yesterday I got an email from a Harvard law student that the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition (CTAC) worked with on an amicus curiae brief, the email in part reads…

I am happy to share that we just received a copy of the declaratory ruling voted on and adopted at last week’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities meeting.  As you may recall, the Commission considered three questions:


1. Does the State of Connecticut, or a municipality as defined under state law, engage in a discriminatory practice in violation of statutes enforced by the Commission – including but not limited to Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 46a-60, 46a-71, or 46a-64 – by offering and administering insurance plans that categorically deny certain treatments for gender dysphoria?


2. Does the State of Connecticut, or a municipality as defined under state law, engage in a discriminatory practice in violation of statutes enforced by the Commission by offering and administering an insurance plan that considers certain procedures medically necessary to treat certain conditions, but considers the same procedures cosmetic for gender dysphoria?


3. Does an insurer that sells health insurance plans pursuant to (1) and/or (2) engage in a discriminatory practice in violation of statutes enforced by the Commission?


The Commissioned answered “yes” to all three questions, and clearly considered the arguments and points raised in CTAC’s brief.


We would love to follow up with you about the decision, especially in regard to the Commission’s answer to Question 3 (opting to approach the question of insurers being places of public accommodation with a fact-bound analysis instead of a categorical conclusion).  There might be some opportunity for further advocacy here.

What it boils down to is that the insurance companies must cover all of our medical needs is they cover it for cis gender people. No more… “That’s cosmetic” co-outs.

NOTE: This ruling does not cover Medicare or companies that have health insurance under ERISA!