SF's City-Provided Health Care Could Cover Sex Changes

San Francisco's universal health program, Healthy San Francisco, could help participants undergo gender-reassignment surgery in about a year, according to reports.

 

Sex changes were one of the procedures specifically exempted from the city's landmark healthcare law, Healthy San Francisco, according to the Associated Press. That exemption was officially lifted Tuesday, in what health officials called a "symbolic" move.

 

There is currently no funding and no infrastructure to cover the tricky and costly surgery in-house at San Francisco General Hospital, according to the news source. 

 

"The community felt the exclusion on Healthy San Francisco was discriminatory and we wanted to change that as the first step," said Department of Public Health director Barbara Garcia.

 

The city's Health Commission approved a plan to examine how many people a separate program for gender-assignment would serve and what it would cost, the AP reported. Who would perform the surgeries and where is also unknown at this point, Garcia said.

 

San Francisco became the first city, in 2001, to allow its employees to use their city-provided health insurance to get gender-reassignment surgeries performed. The amount of companies allowing its employees to do the same on their insurance doubled last year, according to the AP.