Health care for transpersons Essay Example

Health care for transpersons Essay Example Health care for transpersons Paper Health care for transpersons Paper Transgender healthcare is an emerging phenomenon because these lifestyles are evolving rapidly in today’s modern world. Unlike other people, transgender persons require specific health care due to their peculiar circumstance. In the United States of America, most people are covered by some form of health care plan. These plans cover only basic health care needs. Transgender persons are in need of various peculiar surgical procedures, namely: phalloplasty (the construction of a penis), metoidioplasty (enlarging the clitoris), hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), etc. Vitale (1) writes that there are various considerations which transgender persons need to take into account before embarking on a procedure like Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). Top on the list of these considerations is funding. Where will they get the finance to pay for the surgery? Recently the struggle for coverage of transgender health by insurance companies has found its way to Facebook, where people are urged to register their protest against this denial of fundamental rights. On the page it is affirmed that corrective surgery is a necessity not just a cosmetic procedure. Many transgender people are denied coverage by insurance companies although their condition is a medical necessity. Most insurance companies refuse to cover transgender health because such surgery is considered cosmetic, therefore not a necessity. A refusal to grant insurance cover to transgender people can have disastrous effects. Lombardi and Van Servellen (291-296) find that a lack of health insurance and the financial difficulty which transgender people face can lead them to turn to non prescription drug. Thus it is important to assess insurance issues as they affect transgender health care. Problems associated with Transgender Health Care Firstly, the first problem with transgender health care is access. Finance determines access. In other words, the patient has to pay to have the specific surgical procedure performed. This is where insurance companies come in. They need to collaborate with employers in order to provide the needed insurance cover. In the study, â€Å"Serving the Health Care Needs of Transgender Students,† Beemyn (7-8) identifies three pressing concerns of transgender students namely: accommodation, bathrooms and healthcare. Of these three, Beemyn (8) notes that healthcare is the least addressed on most campuses in the US. The study finds that transgender students often have negative experiences at designated health centers where personnel do not address their needs. Thus, most of them turn to health care facilities off campus if they can afford it or go entirely without healthcare at all. Transgender people face a lot of health issues. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality (2) a partial list of transgender health issues includes the following: Violence, HIV/AIDS and other STD prevention and treatment, Substance abuse prevention and treatment, Depression suicide, Lack of health insurance, Lack of health insurance coverage for trans health services, Gender identity disorder (GID) as the principal diagnostic means determining access to trans health services, Lack of FDA approval for transgender hormonal therapy, Injection silicone use, The misclassification of sex reassignment surgery as experimental Furthermore, in their Schilder et al (1643, 1659) found that in a survey of 47 HIV positive men in Vancouver, all the transgender ones of the lot worked in the sex industry. Although this cannot be linked to lack of insurance cover on the face of it, there exists a remote relationship. As a vulnerable group, transgender people need support in order to live production lives. With adequate support, they will disprove stereotype. One of the vital support systems which transgender people need is health insurance that will give them access to quality health care. Comparisons are often drawn between transgender people and people from other groups who need essential medical treatment similar to what is denied to transgender people by insurance because it is considered cosmetic. The group, Transgender at Work argues that if Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is given to post menopausal women (under insurance cover), it is discriminatory to refuse insurance for the same HRT treatments to transgender people.