Amy Daly's Official Blog

Will the new transgender health care law effect the pornography industry?

Image Credit to: sfprideatwork.org

Last month, April 9′th 2013, effective as of that day, California lawmakers passed a ban on Insurance companies discriminating against transsexual patients.   Although the wording of the ban was extremely vague on what exactly can now be covered, it was clear that Insurance companies offering plans in California MUST remove exclusions and limitations on transition related claims.

What does this mean? Well, I have already heard of some trans-women receiving coverage for SRS(Sexual Reassignment Surgery) through medi-cal.  You could also bet that hormone replacement therapy will now also be covered, although many who had insurance were already getting their prescriptions covered by their insurance even if there were exclusions.  It also means that therapy and other doctor visits will be covered.  Hopefully this eliminates the need to go to doctors that create their own secret potions of estrogen and who knows what else at ridiculously high prices and then refuse to hand out prescriptions forcing their “patients” to come back every time at their sky high prices knowing that they can’t see any other doctors.  These doctors don’t even usually bother to make sure their patients are healthy enough to continue treatment or monitor their blood work and hormone levels.  For those of you who don’t know, hormone replacement therapy is extremely dangerous when taken at high levels and can cause things such as blood clots to liver failure if not properly managed.

This also nearly eliminates the majority of the cost of transition to many people.  For anyone who still isn’t clear as to what this all means, it means that if YOU, a transwoman or transman who lives and resides in CALIFORNIA and ALREADY HAVE health insurance, you can now use it to pay for your therapy, hormones, and SRS.  It is still unclear as to what else this may cover.  I have not seen any reports of having Breast Augmentation or Facial Feminization Surgery(FFS) covered, but my guess is that it will not be.  But who knows what the future may hold.  Personally, I think it should be on a case by case basis.  There are many transwomen who flat out will not be able to integrate into society and live a somewhat normal life with out FFS or other surgeries that alter the appearance.  I wouldn’t doubt that as future cases arise, these things may end up being covered in the future.  If they aren’t, then at least you can use the money you would of spent on other things transition related now covered by insurance on non-covered procedures.

What does this mean for people who don’t have insurance  but want to buy it?  Thanks to President Obama, in 2014, rules on pre-existing conditions will no longer exist and you will be covered as well.  You should also know that included in President Obama’s new health laws, there are changes to who will qualify for free medi-cal or very low cost making it open to many more people.  Here is a tool to see how much you could end up paying for the new Medi-cal plan.  After a quick test, it looks like anything more than $15,856 a year and you will be paying only very little a month for insurance.  Roughly under $100 a month for people making less than $20,000 a year and even cheaper for those making less.  Anything under $15,856 will not cost you anything.  I am still not completely sure how accurate the tool is though.  President Obama by the way has done more for Transgender people than any other law maker in the U.S. as far as making life easier for us goes.  He has also hired trans staff members and made trans health coverage available for federal workers. Another great thing that he has done for trans people is that passports can now be changed with out having SRS completed, which completely goes around bigoted state laws that don’t even allow trans people to change their driver’s license information.

So does this mean that we might see some of your favorite transwomen adult performers leave the industry and disappear from public view much faster then previously?  Most likely.  It could even mean that you may not be seeing as many new transwoman adult performers entering the porn industry as well.  There are many transwomen who enter in to adult work, being pornography, web cam, or escorting only to help them afford the costly prices of transition.  I think this is a good thing as it will allow for some transwomen never to have to appear naked in front of a camera and risk their health and dignity just to make a few dollars in order to feel happy about their body.

For more information, check out this FAQ created by the transgender law center:

http://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/4273

<3 Amy