NEW PRESCRIPTION, CONTINUED FROM PG. 07
demonize transgender people and derail any attempt at ending discrimination in benefits.” One eventual way around a political fight could be to rely on an interpretation of the Affordable Care Act, which “prohibits discrimination [on] the basis of sex, and in the regulations, with respect to gender identity,” according to Kellan Baker, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. While Baker notes that it is not yet settled whether the ACA’s non-discrimination provisions will require public and private plans to affirmatively cover transitional care, he points to the federal government’s decision last year to cover transgender-related care under Medicare as a sign of where coverage is headed. “The federal government has not taken any steps … to require state Medicaid programs to require coverage for transgender people,” Baker says. “But I think the indications of where we’re going as a country, both in private and public coverage, is that these exclusions are, by nature, discriminatory.”
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But even if the writing is on the wall, there are plenty of trans Pennsylvanians who are caught in a system of inconsistent care where the prospect of a full transition remains out of reach. Jordan Gwendolyn Davis was one of them. A trans woman, activist and Medicaid recipient, she recently moved to San Francisco from Philadelphia to take advantage of California’s Medicaid program, which covers transition-related care — and will allow Davis to finally get surgery. “People are really suffering right now,” Davis says, noting that it was “tricky” to get even her hormones covered in Pennsylvania. She says getting the regulations changed will in part depend on trans people mobilizing to advocate and tell their stories. “A lot of people don’t have hope or think we’re chasing rainbows. There needs to be unity. This is not impossible, merely an uphill battle,” Davis says. But she doesn’t regret leaving Pennsylvania. Being in California “feels a lot better … I can actually see a way out. I can actually be who I am and have the full surgery and move on,” she says.
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 03.25/04.01.2015
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