I want to spend those years in congruence and not distress.

January 5, 2015 12:35 PM

Despite the ongoing challenges, Mallon said now that the door has opened, other transgender seniors who need sex reassignment surgery shouldn't hesitate. As she savored her new beginning, Mallon mused about all the fun things she looked forward to: swimming comfortably in a pool and going on some dates. "I'm just a normal everyday woman who is bound to get into trouble," she said. "I'm so flirtatious, it's ridiculous."

Sex Reassignment Surgery at 74: Medicare Win Opens Door for Transgender Seniors The ban was reversed in May 2014.
posted by Anonymous (8 comments total)

This is awesome, but as the article points out, only "five states' Medicaid programs — California, Massachusetts, Vermont, the District of Columbia and Oregon — cover transgender health services, including sex reassignment surgery, in their plans for lower-income and disabled people. Ten states have banned health insurance discrimination against transgender people (the five listed above plus Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington, and most recently, New York)." And there are terrible articles like this, where an insurance company in Rhode Island changed its mind about coverage for surgery three days before it was scheduled to happen.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:43 PM on January 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

As a clarification for anyone reading: the win was not reversed, it's just a separate article about the same win.
posted by corb at 12:43 PM on January 5, 2015

stoneweaver, this ruling does not, to my knowledge, apply to the other 45 states.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:47 PM on January 5, 2015

I'm very happy for Denee Mallon, and with Medicare covering as least some surgeries for senior gender transitioners. But we do have a very long way to go, and one of the central obstacles, mentioned in the article, is that although the AMA position is that gender-confirming surgeries are medically necessary rather than cosmetic procedures, no medical school in the U.S. currently trains medical students in genital surgical transitions. Even those trans people who save up enough to cover gender-confirming surgeries personally have difficulty actually finding a provider, and many American trans people seeking surgery find they must travel not just to another state, but another country to access it. With so few providers available, it seems that those who do exist are deciding they will not accept Medicare or Medicaid, which reimburse at relatively low rates, when there are people whose insurance does not cover transition-related care who have saved up to cover the costs in full themselves from whom these doctors will get more money.

Choosing not to instruct medical students in procedures considered medically necessary, for which there is a substantial pool of patients with unmet needs, seems morally reprehensible to me.
posted by DrMew at 1:14 PM on January 5, 2015 [20 favorites]

For people confused by the Medicare/Medicaid issue - Medicare is Federal money. Medicaid is State money (or Federal money given to the state to manage). In California, for example, Medicaid is call Medi-Cal because California hates googlers.
posted by Deoridhe at 1:53 PM on January 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I know a family friend who transitioned as a teenager and is just now, decades later, on track to getting SRS because it's finally covered under Medicare. Denee Mallon is going to help a lot of people through her activism.
posted by Banknote of the year at 2:13 PM on January 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

Better late than never!

Sucks she had to wait that long. I was gonna idly wonder if any major surgery was a good idea at her age, then I remembered that her doctor clearly thinks so and that other people her age get, like, hips replaced and shit for quality of life issues, so why not?
posted by klangklangston at 6:01 PM on January 5, 2015

Yeah, don't confuse Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is run at the federal level and covers all senior citizens. Medicaid is run at the state level for people with low-incomes, people with disabilities, and other qualifying groups (qualification varies by state).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:15 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]