From The Washington Blade:
Transgender advocates have applauded new regulations that ban private health insurance companies in Oregon from discriminating against trans policy holders.
The guidelines the Oregon Insurance Division of the state Department of Consumer and Business Services announced on Dec. 19 specifically prohibit health care providers from discriminating against a policy holder based on their actual or perceived gender identity and expression. Under the guidelines, providers cannot deny coverage of hormone therapy, hysterectomies, mastectomies and other medically-necessary treatments for gender dysphoria and sex-reassignment surgery that are covered for non-trans policy holders.
The agency also prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage of a particular treatment simply because the policy holder is trans. The guidelines also expand Oregon’s statewide mandate for mental health services to include trans Oregonians.
[snip]
“Oregon has correctly recognized that the well-established medical consensus is that transgender-related health care is medically necessary care,” [Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund] said. “This care is designed to treat a recognized medical condition. Transgender individuals pay the same premiums as everyone else and simply want the same benefits.”
Amen to that.
