What a perfect way to kick off 2014, right.
Christian News reports:
The Connecticut Insurance Department has directed all insurance companies in the state to provide coverage for sex change operations, treatments and counseling, reports state.
The Hartford Courant outlines that the department recently issued a bulletin to insurance companies throughout Connecticut, advising them to ensure that “individuals with gender dysphoria … are not denied access to medically necessary care because of the individual’s gender identity or gender expression.”
Gender dysphoria is defined as “the condition of feeling one’s emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one’s biological sex” and is listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The bulletin distributed to insurance companies noted the APA’s acknowledgment of the condition and its consequential eligibility for coverage. It also pointed to a 2011 state law barring discrimination based on gender identity.
“Under these statutes, health insurers are required to pay ‘covered expenses’ for treatment provided to individuals with gender dysphoria where the treatment is deemed necessary under generally accepted medical standards,” it stated.
Connecticut Insurance Commmissioner Anne Melissa Dowling told the Courant that she wanted to start off 2014 by ensuring that the coverage was in place.
“As we were turning the corner into the new year, we just wanted to make sure every constituency was clearly heard,” she stated.
I’m thinking that 2014 will be an even worse year for religious liberty than 2013 was. I know, Happy New Year.
