Today I had the unmitigated pleasure of informing a client of some good news, they may not need to struggle on a barely living wage to try and save for surgery that, as far as I and my professional opinion are concerned, will be life saving. In the united states the cost for male to female reassignment is $17,000 to $24,000. The cost for female to male reassignment easily exceeds $50,000. These estimates do not begin to address the additional ‘non-necessary’ costs, or the continuing after-care, or post surgical issues that until now have been relegated to the same classification of health care as cosmetic vanity surgery.

Washington State will now lead the nation in the provision of medically necessary procedures for it’s Transgender citizens. A decision was made by The Washington Healthcare Authority on July 31st 2015. This ruling provides parity of coverage with medical and behavioral health issues as being medically necessary for the health and well-being of person, as well as defining clearly the policy for appeals of additional currently “non-covered services” that may be determined to be medically necessary for individual transgender persons.

I personally learned about this from the Gender Justice League one of a coalition of groups and individuals who have been working to provide all of Washington States people with equal and inclusive health coverage. It is unfortunate that the decision received little if any coverage in the main stream media. For more information and clarification about the revised standards of care, covered services, exceptions and some excellent guidance on navigating our health care system, I would refer my readers to the blog post that informed me of the good news.