Medical Need or Psychological Need?
Kind of quiet on QL today, so here's an interesting little topic to liven up the day.
Here's the story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/04/14/edm-alberta-transgend...
The Alberta government will cover sex-change operations for those who have already been identified as needing the surgery, but the procedure will be delisted for new patients, Health Minister Ron Liepert confirmed Tuesday.
The decision to drop coverage of the procedure was announced in last week's provincial budget and is estimated to save the government $700,000 a year.
Members of Alberta's transgendered population and their supporters went to the Alberta legislature on Tuesday in hopes of getting the province to change its mind.
But in question period, Liepert would not back down, stating the province will only pay for the 26 individuals who have already had their funding approved and another 20 who have started their hormonal drug therapy.
"It is the intention that those 20 will be covered under the program going forward," Liepert said.
'Devastated' by province's decision
One Albertan is pleased that her procedure will be covered, but she wondered whether the funding would really come through.
"I think it's good news," Jamie-Lynn Garvin said. "If it's true. There's a lot of things that could happen between what [Liepert] just said and when it comes down to what Alberta Health finally tells us."
Garvin, 47, was born a male. After being on hormone therapy for several years, she is on a waiting list to have surgery.
She was devastated when she learned of the province's decision to delist the procedure last week.
"I sat there and just cried for hours," she told CBC News earlier on Tuesday.
In the days afterward, Garvin was in limbo, wondering whether her funding would come through. Garvin estimates her surgery will cost between $18,000 and $40,000.
Necessary procedure
Many people don't understand how necessary the procedure is, Garvin said.
"It's not just a cosmetic issue. It's an actual medical issue, and psychiatrists and medical doctors are involved in determining if we qualify or need the surgery," she said.
Garvin was brought to the Alberta legislature Tuesday by her MLA, Tory backbencher Ken Allred, who made a statement on her behalf.
Some transgendered advocates were planning to file human rights complaints on Wednesday about the delisting of the procedure.
Last year, Ontario announced its health plan would start paying for gender reassignment surgery after a decade of not doing so. The province had lost human rights challenges on the issue.
So my question is, do you think sex change operations are a neccessary surgury or is it just a psychological issue?
I wonder if this would be cover in the UK under the NHS.. I am feeling a bit weird now a days.. Like doing the cooking, ironing, washing, minding the kids, have headaces when I go to bed etc.. Is my body trying to tell me some thing..
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HE WHO DARES WINS
which is why they cancelled it i presume. Let's say this whole financial fiasco didn't exist...then cancelling it would save the government $900,000...i really don't think that money would generate any meaningful value if it were invested somewhere else...i'm sure the budget for heart disease is in the hundreds of millions, and tha cancer budget as well and all the other diseases...this is one of those things that you can file under "other"...you're right though, in these times with the healthcare system so stretched it should be reconsidered, which is why i was quick to praise he government.
I'm sure it is, and I do symphasize with these people, however, right now the Canadian healthcare system is streached to its limits, and I think gender reassignment comes somewhere below heart transplants.
i'm sure it's a little more frustrating than thinking you have the wrong cup size...i don't know where i stand on whether it should be state sponsored or not...but then again you're paying taxes so that everyone in your community will be happy...classicaly that's achieved throught eradicating poverty, improving infrastructure, stressing education...etc. Well what happens when all these things are met? There's still tax money coming in and there are a couple dozen people who can't seem to live with themselves unless they have a surgery...if there's no other outlet for the money that would "generate more happiness" then spending it on those people is actually the most efficient use for it...as bizarre as it may sound.
That's an extremely tough question.
There is no doubt in my mind that these people completely associate themselves with the opposite gender. There is also no doubt in my mind that they can not be "fixed" to make their identity association match that of their physical body. To me, the psychological issue is what exactly is male and female? With the exception of hormones and our physical bodies, there is little that separates male from female. The concept of man and woman is somewhat more of a human invention rather than a biological state (please note the difference in terms of male/female vs man/woman). The gender differences in personalities we note in children, and then later in adults can almost solely be attributed to the way they were raised. From the moment we are born, the effects of our gender are already influencing the way people treat us. To the colours they dress us in, to the way they hold us, to the words they use around us, to the length of time we are left to cry alone in a crib are all dependent on whether people think we are male or female. Women are not biologically interested in fashion, cooking utensils, redecorating etc just as men are not biologically interested in cars, sports and demolishing things. These are all factors that were encouraged from our very first breath. If people were raised truly unbiased by gender, I imagine gender identity problems would be obsolete. What a strange and interesting world we live in.
Well I look at it a bit like plastic surgury. A face lift would make a lot of people feel better about themselves, but it's not necessary (unless they are burn or accident victims), it's cosmetic. And I don't think tax payers should pay for someone's boob job.
i think the stance that the alberta government took on this issue is pretty damn close to perfect. they obviously look at it as a light necessity that can be cancelled when money gets tight, but if circumstances allow it would be granted.
it's definitely a psychological issue in the sense that the person will not die if they don't have the surgery, but that doesn't rule out it being "necessary". The more refined a person is the more refined his/her sensitivities become. A hungry "man-trapped-in-a-woman's-body" would certainly feel its more important to eat than have a transgender operation. However, if all the basic needs are met then i can definitely see how this would be an important issue to him/her which would make it a "necessity".