The Norman Transcript

Headlines

Discussion

November 11, 2012

Transgender surgeries to beincluded in SF health plan

Lisa Leff Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is preparing to become the first U.S. city to provide and cover the cost of sex reassignment surgeries for uninsured transgender residents.

The city’s Health Commission voted Tuesday to create a comprehensive program for treating transgender people experiencing mental distress because of the mismatch between their bodies and their gender identities. San Francisco already provides transgender residents with hormones, counseling and routine health services, but has stopped short of offering surgical interventions, Public Health Director Barbara Garcia said Thursday after the vote was announced.

The idea for a new program that included surgeries came out of conversations between public health officials and transgender rights advocates who wanted mastectomies, genital reconstructions and other surgeries that are recommended for some transgender people covered under San Francisco’s 5-year-old universal health care plan.

At the urging of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center, the commission agreed this week to drop sex reassignment surgery from the list of procedures specifically excluded from the Healthy San Francisco plan.

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Headlines
  • Oklahoma Tornado Disoriented and displaced residents make their way back to devastated homes

    Sparks of joy lit up grief-stricken eyes from time to time on Wednesday after Moore residents were allowed back into their neighborhoods for the first time after Monday’s EF-5 tornado devastated much of the city....

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • dog_wreckage More shelters in forecast

    MOORE — Ten children are dead, and Mayor Glenn Lewis wants tornado shelters included in all new homes built in Moore. A proposed municipal ordinance would require a shelter either inside or outside....

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • clean up 19 School administrators focused on the recovery, future

    MOORE — Just days after Moore Public Schools suffered the loss of nine students and complete destruction of Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary schools, administrators take it a day at a time, as details continue to emerge from affected ...

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • Challpress1 State Senate approves $45 million from Rainy Day fund for relief

    OKLAHOMA CITY — The state Senate voted Wednesday to take $45 million from the state Rainy Day Fund for immediate tornado disaster relief....

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • tornadomom Mother endures labor during tornado

    Shayla Taylor was ready to give birth to her second child just as the impending destruction of Monday’s EF-5 tornado bore down on the Moore Medical Center.

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • Oklahoma visitor had brush with tornado’s fury

    MOORE — Tim Lawrence was just in town to visit his family, but he had to huddle close with them in a storm cellar Monday afternoon as the tornado swept through the neighborhood....

    May 23, 2013

  • Family shelter saves 11 lives

    MOORE — Ronnie and Sally Horn built their retirement home 15 years ago. It was a vision of comfort set against a wooded background. The yard was well manicured. The picket fence was white. The pond out back was as clear as any in Oklahoma. ...

    May 24, 2013

  • OU ready to keep victims all summer

    Juan Flores moved into the Walker Center dormitory Wednesday at the University of Oklahoma. He was shown to his new room, pre-furnished with a bed, desk and closet. He spent his first evening watching football on one of the communal TVs in ...

    May 24, 2013

  • Expert: Schools need shelters

    Ninety-four percent of Oklahoma schools do not have tornado shelters, according to Gov. Mary Fallin, even though at least one weather expert says they should be standard. With two Moore schools destroyed in Monday’s EF-5 tornado — and ...

    May 24, 2013

  • Tornado took town’s youngest as it swept through Moore

    MOORE — One loved the spotlight. Another was nicknamed “The Wall” because of the force he brought to the soccer field. When a top-of-the-scale EF-5 tornado ripped through Moore, it took with it 24 lives. Seven of them were children at ...

    May 24, 2013