AS - Trans MTF
One transphobe on a private forum says that providing coverage for transgender care means that children with cancer will be left to suffer and die.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
I've gotten into in a couple days on 3 forums on transgender health care and only on two do I think I made any progress. I suppose I should take my therapist's advice and leave the web forums alone.
I guess what I can do is do an amici brief on the Medicare case, and point out a study done in Sweden (I think) and a survey done by the Task Force are often misquoted and showing how they may be misquoted, so that if anyone tries to file an amici brief using that to argue against coverage of SRS, the Board would know to look out for the sources being misquoted.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
I don't know why I'm posting. But I just feel I need to.
This is the first time in any kind of a public sense I am admitting that I do have gender dysphoria.
It's a big scary thing that I keep very, very secret. But here, I sense there are some individuals that can be compassionate.
It's something that nags at me every day. I would so much rather be female.
But, I'm stuck with the body I was born in.
I've contemplated transition, but medical procedures freak me the F'k out!
And the social interaction changes seem pretty scary to me too.
From my perspective, society isn't very welcoming towards transgenders.
Things are changing, but there is a long way to go.
My only real hope is in reincarnation, that next time I will be in the right body.
I can't believe I'm actually saying something, but somehow I have to process this, it isn't going away.
_________________
Your Aspie score: 172 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 35 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
Diagnosed in 2005
Hi pete1061,
I don't know your situation, but it may be best to bring this up with a therapist first, especially if you're autistic.
In my case, I'm having gender dysphoria again. I've been feeling fatigued and achy lately and the world seems like an unfriendly place. I'm working on getting those surgery letters up, but there is a lot of uncertainty, which means plenty of time to worry. I'm worried if I attempt coverage for SRS, my insurance company will drop coverage for hormones and make me pay them back--even though they had been covering female hormones since when I was still in their system as "male." Though I'm working with my doctors and a lawyer from the TLDEF, I'm pretty cynical about the whole process, expecting to be screwed over at some point.
I feel a sense of enmity between the people of this country and myself because of all this crap. Why can't we be like Canada or the U.K. or even Germany and have a decent health system that covers all this? Why does the U.S.A. always gotta go for the effed up stuff?
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
This is the first time in any kind of a public sense I am admitting that I do have gender dysphoria.
It's a big scary thing that I keep very, very secret. But here, I sense there are some individuals that can be compassionate.
.
Hi.
I made the first post on this thread, so I won't re-introduce myself
Can you add a little more information ? You have an ASD ? You must of had GD for a long time for it to develop into a "big scary secret"? Do
you plan to see a therapist or do anything about your situation ? Is this a crisis point for you , where sense of regret is setting in that you are not
living the right life ? Does your GD cause you mental distress?
As far as compassion, it seems anti-ASPIE to look down on people, however, you will see ignorance from some members. One member here called me a "smart homosexual" cause he apparently seen me write about trans issues and I have seen others display prejudice.
Good luck.
kittylover
Sea Gull
Joined: 23 May 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Posts: 211
Location: Orange County, California
This is true in a purely numeric sense, because insurance is abstractly a zero-sum game. However, the way this fact is being used is very misleading: providing coverage for setting broken bones also takes funds away from children's cancer treatment, and I don't see this person calling for removal of broken bones from covered care.
Also, transgender care takes away from sealing up wounds. But it also takes away from our cocaine budget, and our Sky budget, and our space program, and saving the lives of children with AIDS, and... anything else that money could be spent on.
It may ultimately be a zero sum game, but we're nowhere near the limits yet.
I disagree that it is necessarily a zero-sum game, because benefits to both the individual and society are also created from the treatments.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
This is true in a purely numeric sense, because insurance is abstractly a zero-sum game. However, the way this fact is being used is very misleading: providing coverage for setting broken bones also takes funds away from children's cancer treatment, and I don't see this person calling for removal of broken bones from covered care.
It would not appear to be a zero-sum game, because medical care is mostly paid by insurance, not spent from one giant pot of money that must be shared by all.
How does me using my employer health insurance mean other people - individually or in the aggregate - lose money to spend on their medical care?
Thank you.
kittylover
Sea Gull
Joined: 23 May 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Posts: 211
Location: Orange County, California
This is true in a purely numeric sense, because insurance is abstractly a zero-sum game. However, the way this fact is being used is very misleading: providing coverage for setting broken bones also takes funds away from children's cancer treatment, and I don't see this person calling for removal of broken bones from covered care.
It would not appear to be a zero-sum game, because medical care is mostly paid by insurance, not spent from one giant pot of money that must be shared by all.
How does me using my employer health insurance mean other people - individually or in the aggregate - lose money to spend on their medical care?
Employer health insurance is risk pooling - the premiums from the employees get pooled and claims are paid out from that. The insurance company also takes some money for administration and their profit. Less money comes out than goes in, but the advantage to members is reduced risk - although on average, each person is financially slightly worse off by having insurance, the unlucky people with catastrophic losses avoid most of theirs.
This is true in a purely numeric sense, because insurance is abstractly a zero-sum game. However, the way this fact is being used is very misleading: providing coverage for setting broken bones also takes funds away from children's cancer treatment, and I don't see this person calling for removal of broken bones from covered care.
It would not appear to be a zero-sum game, because medical care is mostly paid by insurance, not spent from one giant pot of money that must be shared by all.
How does me using my employer health insurance mean other people - individually or in the aggregate - lose money to spend on their medical care?
Employer health insurance is risk pooling - the premiums from the employees get pooled and claims are paid out from that. The insurance company also takes some money for administration and their profit. Less money comes out than goes in, but the advantage to members is reduced risk - although on average, each person is financially slightly worse off by having insurance, the unlucky people with catastrophic losses avoid most of theirs.
The company I believe does benefit, however: they get happy, healthy employees and are more competitive in hiring. You can't leave those factors out.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
Good news! I just spoke with the benefits department at my work and they say the summary plan description (SPD) is the plan document and there is no other. The list of exclusions for the medical plan on the SPD is complete, and nowere on that list of exclusions is any care related to transition specifically mentioned.
May I still have a fight on my hands? Probably! Is this a good sign? Definitely!
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
I went to my therapist yesterday and we are still compiling information for the letter. For the surgery, I have 2 providers that would accept my insurance in mind: Marci Bowers and the University of Michigan Health Services. The psychiatrist I got my second opinion from would be doing my 2nd letter. I will then submit the documentation to the provider for preauthorization.
My therapist thinks I'm a lot more stable and he says that he would have a hard time justifying even biweekly sessions. I noted my mood seemed to improve once I found out that my insurance does not expressly excluded transition-related care. Nevertheless, he gave me the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive episode and over the next week wants me to mark times when one of the criteria comes up in my life. If it's due to gender dysphoria, he would want me to mark "GD" next to it.
OK, I said.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
This is the first time in any kind of a public sense I am admitting that I do have gender dysphoria.
It's a big scary thing that I keep very, very secret. But here, I sense there are some individuals that can be compassionate.
.
Hi.
I made the first post on this thread, so I won't re-introduce myself
Can you add a little more information ? You have an ASD ? You must of had GD for a long time for it to develop into a "big scary secret"? Do
you plan to see a therapist or do anything about your situation ? Is this a crisis point for you , where sense of regret is setting in that you are not
living the right life ? Does your GD cause you mental distress?
As far as compassion, it seems anti-ASPIE to look down on people, however, you will see ignorance from some members. One member here called me a "smart homosexual" cause he apparently seen me write about trans issues and I have seen others display prejudice.
Good luck.
Yeah, I was diagnosed aspie in 2005.
I don't think this is a crisis point. It's more of an identification point. Since I have been around WP for a little while, I have realized that there are others here. For once I can open up a little about something that I don't open up much at all about.
And for me gender issues are separate from sexual preference issues. Personally, I am revolted by anything masculine. I don't see myself perusing men for anything romantic.
I guess that's where the mental distress happens, I am disgusted by men, yet I am one. Living in this body is like a prison sentence or something. My only solace is that I'm in reasonably good shape for my age and I look good in just about every outfit I wear
It's kinda funny. I'm shy to talk about it here, but I sometimes go out on these "adventures". I'm not so shy around strangers in a park.
I've been dealing with GD for quite some time. I was just a child when I first noticed something was different. I grew up the only guy in the house, so I was exposed to plenty of feminine things to experiment with. I could go on and on about all the details, but I'll save that for later. ASD actually provides a piece to the puzzle for me. Folks like us don't adhere to gender stereotypes much.
"big scary secret"... I think that was mainly fear speaking there. The way you imagine the world will react and how it actually does are two completely different things. I think my biggest fear is how people jump to conclusions about one's sexual preferences based on how they are dressed. I still like women, and I'm not attracted to 99.9% of men.(There are some shemales out there I would even hesitate to even call men)
I actually put this a little on society. I grew up in the 70's, that was a really "man hating" part of history. I was raised by a divorced mom who belonged to "womens rights" groups. I had overheard so much anti-man crap it honestly messed up the head of a 5 year old boy who didn't know anything else. Even since then the anti-man crap has not ceased on TV. Everything on TV is about how AWESOME and smart the woman is and how uncivilized and stupid the man is. I am in constant reminder that I was born the wrong gender. Didn't anyone realize that while they we're "boosting" the self esteem of little girls, they we're stomping on the self esteem of little boys? Problems had started showing up by 14, that's when my mom started sending me to a therapist.
Times have changed though. The world is a LOT more open about this that it used to be. In the 80's when I was a teen it was almost unheard of for someone in high school to be dealing with GD. Now there is discussion about what bathroom should they use. If I was born 25 years later, things would have played out a lot differently.
Therapist? yeah, I'm looking for one right now. I don't know how well it will work. A therapist is a very personal relationship and it could take some time weeding through the duds. It is something I do need to bring up. I'm just looking for a therapist I feel comfortable with.
_________________
Your Aspie score: 172 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 35 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
Diagnosed in 2005
^ I can't say what your mum did to you, but I don't think society is anti-man or anti-woman, it's just too strict with its gender roles and makes generalisations about people according to what genitals they have. Trust me, I'm female; I had zero self-esteem and I didn't like my gender and I grew up in the 90s (which you would think would be even more of a 'pro woman' decade.)
_________________
Zombies, zombies will tear us apart...again.
Your sexual orientation can change if you go so far as HRT as well as your perception that you are a "man".
A trans person can become a "new person" on HRT, so everything you say now may change as you learn who you are. In a couple years, you may be telling us you are marrying a guy you met.
Yes!
ASD/AS makes us different. GD varies in people , so there I no real criteria to use to "validate" your femaleness
Early on I was looking for validation that I am really have a "female mind". It did not happen until I was on HRT for a long time, then my original personality emerged, and "old me" dissolved away. It is really a non-issue after a while.
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