Transgender community workers of Portland, Ore., Mayor Sam Adams thinks the area should pay for your gender change medical operation. According to Adams, it is only right that area health insurance cover the procedure. The Portland Community Council is expected to vote on Adams’ proposal as early as June.
‘Fair, common sense,’ said Adams
According to Mayor Adams, the bill is “fair, common sense.” This is what he told The Oregonian newspaper. The previous year, the committee decided that sex change operation charges should not be covered in the Portland self-insurance fund, which would be overridden if the legislation makes it. The denial ended up occurring. This was because the community did not decide entirely to change community policy like this.
It would cost about $32,000 a year for transgender medical operation benefits in Portland according to Adams’ estimates. The area would have to increase its self-insurance plan spending budget. It would only be about a .08 percent increase though.
Keeping ‘medically necessary’ things covered for staff
The American Medical Association made a decision in 2008. It decided that transgender health care is “medically important.” Under the AMA resolution, withholding coverage for procedure of gender identity disorder when such treatment has been prescribed by a physician is not allowed.
“As Mayor, it is important to me that we attract and retain the best and brightest employees to the City of Portland,” writes Adams in a press statement. “Covering basic, medically-necessary care is a matter of fairness, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Choosing an insurance
Kaiser and self-insurance plans called CityCore are both offered to employees of Portland. These are the only two possibilities the employees have. CityCore would cover gender change surgery if Adams gets what he wants making the city’s plan the same as 22 percent of Fortune 100 Companies’ plans and just like many other Oregon businesses.
Just like San Fran
Transgender operation benefits became covered in 2001 in San Francisco. This made it the first United States city to do so. Then-Mayor Willie Brown and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a bill that extended coverage of the gender change operation for city employees, as well as accompanying hormone treatments and related medical needs.
Male to female medical operation costs $37,000 and female to male cost $77,000 at that time. Fees were capped at $50,000 per person for life in the San Francisco ordinance while 15 percent if the surgeon is on the community health plan had to be paid.
Sam Adams at a rally for same-sex marriage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BMPgHIrjKA
Articles cited
Basic Rights Oregon
basicrights.org/
OregonLive.com
blog.oregonlive.com/portlandcityhall/2011/05/mayor_sam_adams_to_push_sex-ch.html
Portland Online
portlandonline.com/mayor/?a=350579&c=49278
SF Gate
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/02/16/MN202072.DTL
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