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Posted on 05/30/2014 11:31:31 AM PDT by reaganaut1
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Transgender people receiving Medicare may no longer be automatically denied coverage for sex reassignment surgeries, a U.S. Department of Health and Services review board ruled Friday in a groundbreaking decision that recognizes the procedures as a medically necessary and effective treatment for individuals who do not identify with their biological sex.
Ruling in favor of a 74-year-old Army veteran whose request to have Medicare pay for her genital reconstruction was denied two years ago, the agency's Departmental Appeals Board ruled that a three-decade-old HHS rule excluding such surgeries from the procedures covered by the national health program for the elderly and disabled was unjustified.
"Sometimes I am asked aren't I too old to have surgery. My answer is how old is too old?" the veteran, Denee Mallon, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, said in an email interview before the board issued its decision. "When people ask if I am too old, it feels like they are implying that it's a 'waste of money' to operate at my age. But I could have an active life ahead of me for another 20 years. And I want to spend those years in congruence and not distress."
Jennifer Levi, a lawyer who directs the Transgender Rights Project of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston, said the ruling does not mean Medicare recipients are necessarily entitled to have sex reassignment surgery paid for by the government.
Instead, the lifting of the coverage ban means they now will be able to seek authorization by submitting documentation from a doctor and mental health professionals stating that surgery is medically indicated in their individual case, Levi said.
Transgender health advocates said that because private insurance companies and state-run Medicaid programs that provide health insurance for low-income individuals often take their cue
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Fer Chrissake, if Zeke Emmanuel’s value of life by age, as inspiration for Obamacare, is restricting cancer treatments, why give a 74-year old a sex-change operation?
Does this mean that John Boehner can finally get some testicle implants?
Sure, you are authorized for a sex change operation.
Hold on while I place some veteran a bit lower on the waiting list.
FU, libs.
Your time is coming.
And we have the guillotine sharp and ready for your skinny little pencil necks.
The catch is that the wait will make you change your mind, not your penis for a cooter.
If I were the surgeon doing that operation, the whole time I’d be thinking, What the hell am I doing!
We might as well spend like hell now let’s just destroy the system so we can start over sooner.
In addition to House Speaker JB, what about backbone implants to a number of RINOS!
God help us.
74 years old and this person doesn’t know their sex?
so - you can a get new plumbing when you’re 74, but forget about a hip replacement
America has descended into total madness.
Stark-raving madness.
neither do I know their sex, because the MSM likes to twist things around so I don’t know if its a man wanting to be a girl, or the other way around.
I think maybe he’s 74 and bored and wanted something to play with in the tub
Could a sane Republican administration just cancel this out just as easily as it was implemented?
I am waiting for the congress person with enough sense to propose a law banning federal money for all sex change operations across the board. None for federal prisoners, none for military, none for medicare, etc. They don’t pay for nose or boob jobs, so why should they pay for this?
If changing their appearance makes them feel better/ more like themselves, they should pay for it with their own money out of their own pockets. Only the the looniest lib would have a problem with a law like that.
THIS GOES WAYYYYYYYY BEYOND INSANE,!!! They WILL be denying
cancer care, hip replacements, heart surgeries, ect., ect., ect., BUT
sex changes for someone over 65 I AM SPEACHLESS!!!!! It is coming
SOON folks the AMERICAN people have to be REACHING A BREAKING
POINT!!!! They just HAVE to be!!!!!!
They will pay for that and let the old people die from a host of other diseases.
Now the elderly are being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
Yet we still have to pay out of pocket for laser eye surgery!
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