Health Insurance Coverage

[dreadgeek]

I work for a software company. We are headquartered out of San Francisco but Engineering, where I am, is all in Portland. In 2015, I was all ready to go. By this time last year I had my primary care physician, who is head of Kaiser's gender clinic here, referral along with the two surgery letters. Kaiser kicked the referral back and it was only then that I came to understand that the California based Kaiser plan covered GCS and all associated costs but the Oregon-based plan did not. My doctor said that might happen and that we could appeal.

I decided that I would appeal as last resort but I would write HR and make an argument based on parity. As it turns out, the Oregon Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan did cover GCS but I grew up on Kaiser and so whenever that is on offer, that's the plan I take so I didn't realize that. I said I *could* switch my coverage to BC/BS but that I strongly preferred staying with Kaiser. HR said that since we were in the middle of negotiating this year's coverage they'd get it added.

In October, just before the open enrollment period began, HR sent me an email giving me a sneak peak, if you will, at coverage for GCS which is quite generous--at least for MTFs but I'm not sure for FTMs. My doctor would like me to advocate them doubling it to $150,000 which I'll definitely do. Not only is the surgery covered but the pre-surgery electrolysis is *also* covered which was a very pleasant surprise.

Yes, this is something that is happening in software companies (I don't work for an outfit anywhere near the size of Google or Facebook) and it isn't happening in every industry. But it *is* happening and for someone who had thought she was going to have to pay out of pocket, suddenly having this covered is the most amazing thing!

Cheers
AJ