[btilly]

Define "gender reassignment surgery", please.

Are we talking about a top operation, or a bottom one? Do mastectomies count as gender reassignment, or only if genitals are involved?

Because if you include top surgery, then https://wng.org/roundups/state-mandates-payment-for-children... says that where I live in California it is legal, and insurance must pay for it.

[heterodoxxed]

| grounded in facts and Biblical truth

You're going to have to come up with a better source.

[alisonkisk]

Better source:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abst...

[btilly]

I paid little attention to what site that was on, just looked for the content.

But it links to http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200... which is the actual decision posted on an official California government website. It confirms what I said.

[geofft]

> I paid little attention to what site that was on, just looked for the content.

Sometimes people lie on the internet.

And quite often, when they lie, they do so by omission or by inaccurately summarizing facts.

In any case, the two points in this thread are in agreement. Top surgery is "typically only available to those 18 or older," as 'john-radio wrote. In atypical cases, it is available to those under 18, and it requires a doctor to a) decide that it's necessary and b) consciously go against WPATH recommendations when doing so. The legal opinion here is that an insurer may not come up with a rule that says that doctors may never decide that it's the right thing to do for a particular patient, because that's a decision a doctor is allowed to make.

[btilly]

The point that you're missing is that when there is a demand, a supply tends to rise.

My child is smart enough to look for a doctor that is known to have evaluated cases on a "case by case basis" to provide the surgery that they want. As for how to find said doctor, if anyone in their online social network finds one, that information will be shared. In fact I would happily take an even money bet that my child would have no problem laying their hands on the name of such a doctor within 24 hours.

[heterodoxxed]

| The WPATH standards of care also state, however, that male chest reconstruction surgery for female-to-male patients “could be carried out earlier” than the age of majority in certain cases, and ultimately should be considered on a case-by-case basis “depending on an adolescent’s specific clinical situation and goals for gender identity expression.”

What do you think that specific clinical situation was in those situations?