I used to work in email. CA spam and unsubscribe laws are so good and the closest we have to consumer protection in stuff like email subscriptions that Canada and EU have. Really hope these sort of things make their way to the rest of the US.

I was sick as a DOG for over a week and all I wanted was a medium iced blueberry coffee with oat milk. Ended up paying about $20 for that damn coffee to be delivered to me less than a block from my front stoop.

I agree! I’ve historically had great experiences with them, just been an extremely tough year for providers it seems.

My partner tried to get in last week and they have a 3-4 waiting period right now for new patients. And that’s if you’re willing to just accept whichever pcp becomes free first. I’ve been a patient of theirs for many years and even I can’t usually get on the phone with any doctor without a few days to a couple weeks of waiting. They’re going through brutal staff losses and their recent switch to Epic, although good in the long term, has hurt them considerably in the short term.

I think there’s some confusion here when it comes to health insurance and being trans, which makes sense because navigating health care while trans is absolutely mind boggling. I’ve went through hell the last year navigating it myself, but I learned a lot.

Health insurance companies by law are required to cover treatments that are medically necessary which, if your doctor follows WPATH, is generally considered to be HRT at the bare minimum with sex reassignment surgery also being a commonly accepted necessary surgery. Having a blanket statement stating no services for treating gender dysphoria will be covered is illegal on the grounds of gender discrimination(often coincides with sex-based discrimination), flat out.

Now, how that works with Health Plans essentially being a processing plant, I’m not entirely sure. I would assume the company would take the role as the insuring party, but it seems complicated and a I can see why it would seem like a grey area when it comes to holding them to the same standards. I would be interested to see how this plays out.

I would also like to point out that cosmetic surgery is not always considered elective, at least in the way some commenters are saying. With many more procedures being deemed as medically necessary for transgender individuals, some on a case-by-case, many procedures such as laser hair removal, tracheal shaves, and some forms of FFS are falling under the umbrella. It’s the opinion of WPATH and much of the medical community that these are as elective as a facial burn victim getting reconstructive skin grafts are. People like to minimize this because its a weird middle ground between mental and physical issues, but these surgeries are often life-saving and have massive rates of improving the condition of the patient overall.

TLDR: this shit is complicated and we all know health insurance will always try to fuck you.

Sources:

• WPATH Statement
• Blurb on insurance exclusions
• healthcare.gov on trans exclusions, half way down page
• Section 1557 Affordable Care Act