GLAD Applauds AMA’s Support for Transgender Health Care
AMA Resolution Calls for Insurance Coverage
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) applauded the American Medical
Association’s (AMA) support for transgender health care, declared today by a resolution
passed by the AMA’s House of Delegates.
Meeting in Chicago, the House of Delegates passed a resolution entitled “Removing
Financial Barriers to Care for Transgender Patients,” which states “Resolved, that our
American Medical Association support public and private health insurance coverage for
treatment of gender identity disorder as recommended by the patient’s physician.”
Getting appropriate medical care, from psychotherapy to hormone therapy to any range
of surgeries, is a struggle for most transgender people due to prejudice, ignorance, and
simple discrimination, said Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights
Project:
“This resolution is hugely important, coming from the country’s most respected medical
organization. Transgender people have to climb over so many barriers in order to get
appropriate care, not the least of which is insurance coverage. The AMA resolution
should help providers, insurers, courts and legislatures put gender identity disorder in its
proper context – as a treatable health condition that insurers should cover without
discrimination.”
GLAD’s work to challenge bias in health care against transgender people includes its
current litigation of the U.S. Tax Court case, O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, in which the IRS refused to consider deductible the medical expenses
associated with care of treatment of Rhiannon O’Donnabhain’s gender identity disorder.
“The questions that were raised in Rhiannon’s case about the legitimacy of the GID
diagnosis and appropriateness of its care and treatment are all answered in the affirmative
by this AMA resolution,” commented Levi. “This resolution firmly contradicts the IRS’s
position that gender identity disorder is without a medical basis or that there is any
question about the effectiveness of the established treatments for it.”
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, now celebrating its 30th anniversary, is New
England’s leading legal organization dedicated to fighting discrimination based on sexual
orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.
# # #
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is New England's leading legal organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.