SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Transgender Health Care is a Human Right
Jun 01, 2014
The big LGBT-news that the mainstream media is buzzing about this week is that transgender actress Laverne Cox became the first transgender person to grace the cover of TIME magazine.
Her recognition and the accompanying cover story, "The Transgender Tipping Point," are terrific moments for the transgender movement. In the TIME interview Cox says, "there's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience..."
She's right. And this week there is not just one major moment for trans rights.
The ACLU and our partners have just secured a landmark ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) striking down Medicare's blanket ban on coverage for gender confirmation surgeries. This takes us one big step closer to our ultimate goal: a general recognition in America that transition-related care is basic health care for transgender people that no one should be denied.
Medicare provides health care for America's elderly and disabled. Determinations of what medical treatments are covered by Medicare are made mostly by regional decision-making bodies, but there is a small number of national rules - called "national coverage determinations," or NCDs - regarding whether certain treatments are covered by Medicare. Back in 1981, HHS issued an NCD that Medicare does not cover transition-related health care.
Today there is a consensus among doctors that transition-related health care is medically necessary, but the NCD has kept Medicare stuck in the early 1980s. So the ACLU, along with our partners at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, filed an administrative challenge to the NCD, arguing that the rule is inconsistent with current medical science. Today, an HHS administrative review board ruled that we were right and struck down the archaic, discriminatory rule.
This decision takes away the blanket ban on Medicare coverage for transition-related medical care.
Instead of having their claims automatically denied, Medicare recipients who need transition-related surgery should either get coverage or, at a minimum, receive an individualized review of the medical need for the specific procedure they seek, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment.
If they don't, we'll take up those appeals.
Getting rid of Medicare's blanket ban on coverage is a significant step forward and brings the country much closer to the day when basic health care is widely available to transgender people, regardless of whether they are disabled, elderly, or poor.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
James Esseks
James D. Esseks is Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project.
The big LGBT-news that the mainstream media is buzzing about this week is that transgender actress Laverne Cox became the first transgender person to grace the cover of TIME magazine.
Her recognition and the accompanying cover story, "The Transgender Tipping Point," are terrific moments for the transgender movement. In the TIME interview Cox says, "there's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience..."
She's right. And this week there is not just one major moment for trans rights.
The ACLU and our partners have just secured a landmark ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) striking down Medicare's blanket ban on coverage for gender confirmation surgeries. This takes us one big step closer to our ultimate goal: a general recognition in America that transition-related care is basic health care for transgender people that no one should be denied.
Medicare provides health care for America's elderly and disabled. Determinations of what medical treatments are covered by Medicare are made mostly by regional decision-making bodies, but there is a small number of national rules - called "national coverage determinations," or NCDs - regarding whether certain treatments are covered by Medicare. Back in 1981, HHS issued an NCD that Medicare does not cover transition-related health care.
Today there is a consensus among doctors that transition-related health care is medically necessary, but the NCD has kept Medicare stuck in the early 1980s. So the ACLU, along with our partners at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, filed an administrative challenge to the NCD, arguing that the rule is inconsistent with current medical science. Today, an HHS administrative review board ruled that we were right and struck down the archaic, discriminatory rule.
This decision takes away the blanket ban on Medicare coverage for transition-related medical care.
Instead of having their claims automatically denied, Medicare recipients who need transition-related surgery should either get coverage or, at a minimum, receive an individualized review of the medical need for the specific procedure they seek, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment.
If they don't, we'll take up those appeals.
Getting rid of Medicare's blanket ban on coverage is a significant step forward and brings the country much closer to the day when basic health care is widely available to transgender people, regardless of whether they are disabled, elderly, or poor.
James Esseks
James D. Esseks is Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project.
The big LGBT-news that the mainstream media is buzzing about this week is that transgender actress Laverne Cox became the first transgender person to grace the cover of TIME magazine.
Her recognition and the accompanying cover story, "The Transgender Tipping Point," are terrific moments for the transgender movement. In the TIME interview Cox says, "there's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience..."
She's right. And this week there is not just one major moment for trans rights.
The ACLU and our partners have just secured a landmark ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) striking down Medicare's blanket ban on coverage for gender confirmation surgeries. This takes us one big step closer to our ultimate goal: a general recognition in America that transition-related care is basic health care for transgender people that no one should be denied.
Medicare provides health care for America's elderly and disabled. Determinations of what medical treatments are covered by Medicare are made mostly by regional decision-making bodies, but there is a small number of national rules - called "national coverage determinations," or NCDs - regarding whether certain treatments are covered by Medicare. Back in 1981, HHS issued an NCD that Medicare does not cover transition-related health care.
Today there is a consensus among doctors that transition-related health care is medically necessary, but the NCD has kept Medicare stuck in the early 1980s. So the ACLU, along with our partners at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, filed an administrative challenge to the NCD, arguing that the rule is inconsistent with current medical science. Today, an HHS administrative review board ruled that we were right and struck down the archaic, discriminatory rule.
This decision takes away the blanket ban on Medicare coverage for transition-related medical care.
Instead of having their claims automatically denied, Medicare recipients who need transition-related surgery should either get coverage or, at a minimum, receive an individualized review of the medical need for the specific procedure they seek, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment.
If they don't, we'll take up those appeals.
Getting rid of Medicare's blanket ban on coverage is a significant step forward and brings the country much closer to the day when basic health care is widely available to transgender people, regardless of whether they are disabled, elderly, or poor.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.