#transgender health

Vox​reminds us that despite all the recent progress the transgender community has made — on health care,Medicare, and discrimination in education and the federal workplace — the military has not been so accommodating. The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell didn’t end the ban on transgender soldiers, who can be ejected from the military without a medical review, regardless of their ability to serve. Transgender soldiers also can’t access the military health system to get the care they need. For more on their plight, see this recent report from the Palm Center think tank at San Francisco State University.

Big news:  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has ruled that Medicare can cover sex-reassignment surgery for transgender people.

The program has had a blanket ban on gender transition–related surgical procedures for more than 30 years. But in a ruling last week, HHS’s Departmental Appeals Board threw out the ban, saying it is unreasonable and contrary to current science and medical standards of care, think-progress reports. As Kellan Baker explains,

The lifting of the coverage exclusion means that transgender Medicare beneficiaries will now be able to seek individualized review of the medical necessity of the specific procedure they need, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment.

Medicare provides health insurance coverage for 48 million seniors and people with disabilities. The ruling is the result of a challenge by groups including the ACLU, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. It follows similar decisions by five states and the District of Columbia, all of which have held that across-the-board exclusions for transition-related care by private health plans are discriminatory and unlawful, the Transgender Law Center notes.

More reaction here.

(Image via Think Progress)

Influential Medical Journal Devotes Series To Transgender Health Issues

The Lancet has published a special supplement on Transgender Health, which includes advice for health care professionals as well as calls for greater public health action towards stronger anti-discrimination policies policies, more gender-inclusive schools, bans on “conversion” therapies, increased access to affirming health care and surgery, as well as direction for further academic study, including prioritizing research in Asia,the Middle East, and Africa, and assessing the interplay between gender affirming therapies and interventions for chronic disease (e.g. in the case of diabetes).