NEWS
ACTIVIST
MEDICAID EXPANDS
COVERAGE FOR
TRANSGENDER
OREGONIANS
Alex Paige, a trans woman from
Portland, describes the gender dys-
phoria she experienced as “a supreme
unhappiness with the way my body
looked, the way it felt, the way other
people interacted with me.” Thanks to an
Aug. 14 vote by the Health Evidence Review
Commission (HERC), treatments for gender
dysphoria will be covered under the Oregon
Health Plan (OHP) beginning January 2015.
The vote followed an intensive study by HERC of the ef-
fectiveness of treatments for gender dysphoria — the complex
condition people feel when their bodies don’t agree with their
gender identities.
This new “continuum” of covered treatments, which Basic
Rights Oregon policy director Danielle Askini says will “save
lives and money,” will encompass therapy, hormonal treat-
ment, puberty suppressants and reassignment surgery. HERC
predicts that 175 transgender people will utilize these treat-
ments per year.
In a National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) sur-
vey of transgender Oregonians, 44 percent reported that they
had attempted suicide. Askini says that this coverage expansion
is based on two things: the evidence that suicide rates in trans-
gender people plummet after they are given proper treatment
and the logic that money spent on treatment now will be far less
than that spent on lifelong psychological therapy or emergency
room visits following suicide attempts.
Now that she is comfortable with her gender identity and
receiving hormonal treatment, Paige says she dresses how she
wants, never gets “mis-gendered” and generally lives her life.
The one step she hasn’t taken is gender reassignment surgery,
which she would do if she could afford it. Although Paige’s
reassignment surgery will technically be covered in January,
there is only one gender reassignment surgeon in Oregon, and
he doesn’t accept OHP insurance.
Representatives from Basic Rights Oregon and OHP say
they are not immediately clear on how Oregonians insured
under OHP will access dramatic “bottom surgeries” like vagi-
noplasty. Askini thinks Oregon may do something similar to
Washington, where the state’s version of Medicaid arranges for
patients to undergo their surgeries in California.
“A barrier for low-income folks is now removed, and that
is huge,” says Allison Cleveland, who helps lead the Oregon
Anti-Violence Project in Eugene, “because in previous years
if you were financially able, you could get the care that you
needed.” Cleveland has seen clients travel as far as Thailand for
cheap, imperfect reassignment surgery, returning still alienated
from their bodies.
According to the NCTE survey, 17 percent of transgender
respondents had an annual income of $10,000 or less. Cleve-
land believes that cheaper access to treatments from OHP will
be a blessing for all transgender people, from kids hoping to
prevent a puberty they don’t want, to adults finally assuming
fully functional genitalia that they’re comfortable with.
Paige says suicide rates shouldn’t be the only thing consid-
ered to rationalize increased access to transitional hormones
and surgery. “There are times when you just are completely
tired of feeling in pain and feeling hurt and you just want to
give up. Usually you’re just struggling to survive every day. A
big part of my transition was realizing — survival isn’t enough.
You have to be able to live as well.” — Ben Stone
LERT
• Beyond Toxics is planning a “Bee Jazzy” benefit to
save bees from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 28, at Silvan
Ridge Winery, 27012 Briggs Hill Road, 15 miles southwest
of Eugene. Music by Zac Wolfe Band. Tickets are $30. Call
465-8860 or email events@beyondtoxics.org.
• Cascadia Forest Defenders, a Eugene-based
environmental direct action collective, is hosting a public
potluck at 5:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 2, in Charnel-Mulligan
Park at 17th and Charnelton. Enjoy a free meal and talk
with local activists about how you can join the fight to
save the Elliott State Forest and plug into other CFD
campaigns. See forestdefensenow@gmail.com.
• Health Care for All Oregon meets at 7 pm Tuesday,
Sept. 2, at the First United Methodist Church, 13th and
Olive. On the agenda is a discussion about where HCAO is
headed this coming year, and new legislative efforts for
drug pricing. Call Ruth Duemler at 484-6145 to get on the
mailing list.
• Daniel Ellsberg will speak in Portland at 7 pm
Thursday, Sept. 4, as part of the Wayne Morse Legacy
Series. Joining Ellsberg in the free event will be historian
Christian Appy and Lt. Col. Thuy Tran. Registration for “The
Echoes of Vietnam” is required at worldoregon.org.
POLLUTION UPDATE
Oregon DEQ has settled Christopher John Bartels’
appeal of the civil penalty assessed against him by DEQ in
July of 2013 for illegally discharging wastewater from his
meat processing and packing facility to ditches flowing to
Fern Ridge wetlands on two occasions in 2011 (EW
6/27/13, goo.gl/Xb41PD), by reducing the $15,600
penalty originally assessed to $10,200. DEQ’s settlement
with Bartels also includes an additional $7,600 penalty
for illegal discharges of blood waste to Fern Ridge
Reservoir in February of this year (EW 5/8, goo.gl/BhX5vP).
— Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
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eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 28, 2014
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