Canada: Ontario Reinstates Surgery For Transsexuals
In Canada’s national healthcare system, for years all of the provinces and territories provided coverage for genital reassignment surgery — except Ontario. That province stopped covering the surgery over ten years ago.
Times change. Per CNEWS, Ontario will resume coverage of sexual reassignment surgery:
Ontario will soon join other provinces in providing coverage for sex-change surgery under the province’s health insurance plan, Health Minister George Smitherman confirmed Thursday.
Smitherman said the details have not been finalized, but Ontario will start paying for sexual reassignment surgery for the first time in 10 years, providing coverage for the limited number of people who qualify for the procedure.
“It’s the government’s intention to move forward with the provision of services on about the same level as they were (when) cancelled some number of years ago,” he said.
“(It would) probably affect between eight and 10 people in Ontario, who after having very, very sustained psychological evaluations would be deemed by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as appropriate candidates to receive a surgical intervention.”
Ontario’s previous Conservative government cancelled coverage of sex-change operations in 1998, leaving some people stranded midway through the process.
Given the political climate in the U.S., it seems likely to me that coverage of genital reassignment surgery would be specifically excluded by Congress in any proposed national health insurance plan — just as it’s specifically excluded within the Medicare and Veteran Administration guidelines.
My best wishes for those 8 to 10 transsexuals in Ontario who qualify for surgery.
Original post by Autumn Sandeen