Having intolerant friends

[telecom_goddess]

Not completely sure where to put this so you know the drill, if it's wrong move it thanks

So I'm in the middle of a raging debate on FB right now over whether or not gender reassignment surgery should be covered by insurance. And whether it's an "elective" surgery. The mayor of our town is proposing that this type of treatment be covered under insurance carried by city workers. Yes the mayor is gay which is why this isn't just being ignored....he's addressing issues that haven't been before.

The friend who posted this is against covering these procedures on insurance. And her friends are jumping in saying it's an elective surgery.

THEY ARE PISSING ME OFF! This is NOT an elective surgery, as some folks we know can attest to. In fact I will quote:

"In persons diagnosed with transsexualism or profound GID, sex reassignment surgery, along with hormone therapy and real-life experience, is a treatment that has proven to be effective. Such a therapeutic regimen, when prescribed or recommended by qualified practitioners, is medically indicated and medically necessary. Sex reassignment is not "experimental," "investigational," "elective," "cosmetic," or optional in any meaningful sense." -- Professional Standards of Care version 6

Why NOT cover such treatments? They are screaming the "special rights" argument, and one person is saying that affirmative action is wrong, along with this issue. And from what I can tell he's a white straight male so go figure.

Now in a lot of ways the mayor is a putz, I'll grant you that. BUT I think if he wants to have these kinds of treatments covered for the first time ever in this city then GOOD FOR HIM!!!

Fuck me......I really don't know how I got to know such intolerant people.

[DrFaroohk]

So I have to ask...I don't understand why it's not elective. I know some people really really want the surgery, but does that make it medically NECESSARY? I would almost think "necessary" means you need shrapnel taken out of your heart or your gangrenous toes removed.

[telecom_goddess]

I'll just refer to what I said above.....according to the professional standards of care.

[Andara Bledin]

So I have to ask...I don't understand why it's not elective. I know some people really really want the surgery, but does that make it medically NECESSARY? I would almost think "necessary" means you need shrapnel taken out of your heart or your gangrenous toes removed.

It's not a physical need, but a psychological need.

There are a lot of things covered by insurance that fall under this.

And hell, as long as fucking Viagra is covered, this should be, too.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

Are breast enhancement surgery coverd by insurance?
I ask as that is one of the first stages of surgery undertaken, that and any facial reconstruction that may be disired.
Those two are elective to an extent, adding those to insurance if they are not covered by insurance on women wanting breast surgery will mean all or none.

The final stages of adding or removing of a penis are not elective as you cannot willy nilly (pun intended) do that without alot of counciling and other such stuff (state to state country to country YMMV) if you are at this stage then everyone involved with your case sees you as NEEDING this operation, this one without reading up on it, I say should be covered or subsidized or something, breast I'm 50/50 on, other cosmetic alterations that are purely that no, mostly due to it opening the flood gates to cosmetic surgery in general going onto insurance*.

*unless it already is then I say go whole hog, but I'm assuming it isn't.

[HYHYBT]

It's hard to tell where intolerance ends and ignorance begins, but this at least possibly *could* be only the latter. Quite a lot of people would see "necessary" surgery as that which directly prevents physical illness or death. Removing an infected appendix, fixing a leaky heart valve, that sort of thing. *In that sense,* a sex change would be optional: you could choose to keep the wrong parts the rest of your natural life and be miserable.

The problem is that that's the wrong standard of "necessity" to use, but that's a tricky argument to make.

[telecom_goddess]

I don't know about breast augmentation....I would think someone getting it for the pure sake of vanity in a general sense should in no way have it covered. But what about a person who lost a breast due to cancer? this would fall kinda into the same genre of someone getting breast augmentation done due to the sex change. Both at that point would fall under the same heading of filling a psychological need due to wanting a whole body or whatever...

I think procedures need to be looked at on a case by case basis rather than a blanket "we don't cover that ever!"

[telecom_goddess]

Well the FB thing ended up being a pretty good debate and didn't get too ugly

[Plaidman]

Eh, two of my friends are just going to Tailand to have the surgery to become full fledge women, not only is it cheaper there, and still medically safe, but the people there LOVE them for what they're doing. They've visited it a few times, and never have they been insulted, or attacked, or stared at, they're treated like freaking models over their, and while one now looks alot like a women that when I first met him, I really thought he was a girl (He was in final stages, just had to split and insert the peepee). My other friend though, likely cause I've know him for over a decade, still looks like he always did, despite the breasts and different face.


Should it be elective or under insurence? I could go ether way. From my medical studies, gender dissassoctive disorder (Or whatever the fuck ya spell it when you think your a male in a woman body or women in male's body) is still considered a psychatric disorder, and most of those medicenes and certain procedures like electroshock therapy is covered under some insurences.

[gremcint]

It's hard to tell where intolerance ends and ignorance begins

I think it's actually the other way around.

[Hyena Dandy]

So is this specifically about gender reassignment or can I complain about my racist friend?

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

So is this specifically about gender reassignment or can I complain about my racist friend?

That's actually what I thought this thread was about when I saw the title.

[BlaqueKatt]

Are breast enhancement surgery coverd by insurance?
I ask as that is one of the first stages of surgery undertaken

all the MTF women I know never had breast augmentation, they took hormones that's all, and most of them had a pretty decent rack.....

According to this article-hormone therapy alone can get you to a B cup-which isn't bad....(Paris Hilton is a B cup, she just wears push up bras, and uses makeup)

[Greenday]

It depends on your definition of "elective". To some people, elective means necessary to live. By that definition, sex change surgery is definitely elective. You can continue to be whatever sex you were born and you don't die from it. It's not physically incapacitating you. So if that's what they are going by, they are right.

[telecom_goddess]

It depends on your definition of "elective". To some people, elective means necessary to live. By that definition, sex change surgery is definitely elective. You can continue to be whatever sex you were born and you don't die from it. It's not physically incapacitating you. So if that's what they are going by, they are right.

It is necessary to live. For those that can't continue with their treatment they can become suicidal.

As for whether to talk about a racist friend yah go for I guess this is about intolerance in general.