Colorado transgender woman, Ashlyn Trider, is currently working with TLDEF (Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund) to call for Aetna Life Insurance Company to cover her sex reassignment surgery. Her surgery has been deemed medically necessary as part of treatment for gender dysphoria, yet coverage has been denied by Aetna on the grounds that her policy excludes coverage for all transgender health care. This is in direct violation of Colorado law, which states that insurance companies must treat transgender policyholders' health needs exactly as they would anyone else.
Treatments such as sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy are widely recognized as medically necessary by organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Colorado is one of currently 11 jurisdictions in the U.S. that bar health insurance discrimination against transgender people including: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C.
Up until recentl years, health insurance companies as well as some other medical authorities have been allowed to view treatment for gender dysphoria as "optional" or "voluntary." However, gender dysphoria can have significantly deleterious effects on mental health and well-being, often to the point that many transgender people either consider or commit self-harm or even suicide.
If Trider and TLDEF can successfully get Aetna to reverse their decision, it would send a powerful message out to all who do not see gender dysphoria treatment as medically necessary, and possibly even lead to further banning of transgender discrimination in health care outside of the 11 jurisdictions that already have it in place.