Government should help fund Sex Reassignment Petition

[Anonymous]

I’ve done it. Thank you for the link.

Some may have an issue with having to give details, but this is so important to many of us.

I have seen arguements elsewhere that public funding of treatment opens a can of worms and “obliges us” to bow down to the will of the government. And that the treatment available in Australia is substandard at best.

Maybe, if we can get the surgery covered and generate more interest amoung surgeons to perform this type of surgery locally, we may see an improvement in the standards of care available.

I used my super to pay for my treatment. I would have preferred to have been able to keep that for my retirement. My experience overseas was wonderful and I made some great friends as well, but the whole process leading up to the big day was very traumatic for me. This shouldn’t be the case.

[bee]

It is my understanding that the surgery IS subsidized currently by Medicare, as the surgery costs around $40,000 for non Medicare clients in Melbourne. (Out of pocket expenses for Medicare clients being currently about $10.000). One way to even have this covered seems to be to join the Defence Force.

Actually if one is transitioning SRS may not be the greatest expense as Facial surgery and accompanied Facial Hair removal can be many times this $10,000 figure.

[Adrian]

I wonder how many people read the petition before just signing it?

The petition has a response from the very people this petition is sent to that seems to say that signing the petition can have no effect….

It says….

Quote:

Email from the Human Rights Commission 16/4/12012

Thank you for your email to the Communications Unit at the Commission, raising a critical issue for trans people.

I work in the Human Rights Policy team at the Australian Human Rights Commission, which is the policy team that produced the Sex Files report in March 2009. While the focus of the Sex Files report was specifically the examination of legal identity, the need for gender reassignment surgery to be covered by Medicare was also raised with us in consultations of the sex and gender diversity project at the time, as were a range of other health concerns. See Section 13, Sex Files: the legal recognition: Concluding paper of the sex and gender (2009). In the Sex Files report, we explained how the Commission did not have an opportunity to investigate these matters further in the report. However, we raised them with the federal Minister for Health and recommended that the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference consider them. We will continue to raise human rights issues for sex and gender diverse people with the federal government at the right opportunity.

However, I think that you should raise this significant issue directly with the current federal Minister for Health. Our Communications Unit has received many petitions similar to yours, generated from the change.org petition site (which I think you created?). I see that you have the Communications Unit at the Commission as a default address for the petitions. You may find it more effective to send the petitions to the federal government representatives, as they are responsible for deciding policy for Medicare reimbursements, rather than the Commission.

[Adrian]

On a more personal note it disturbs me that these initiatives provide no opportunity for members of the gender diverse community to express any opinion other than that being targeted in the petition.

I think there are a lot of people who might appreciate the opportunity to talk freely about such important issues, without the implicit threat that by not supporting fully every initiative they are somehow letting others down.

No matter how many people sign a petition for change, it is always valid and interesting to know how many did not sign it, and for what reason.

Perhaps if someone ran a validated anonymous survey and not a petition they might get a better idea of the broader community feeling.