32-year-old Dashir Moore, a trans man who recently moved from Georgia to Colorado, was under the impression that his healthcare provider would cover a gender-affirming surgery known as “top” or “chest” surgery. He alleges that he was told the provider would cover this surgery without prior authorization, but post-surgery, he was told they weren’t covering it.
The bill he’s left with? About $30,000.
Now, the ACLU is pushing the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to look into Moore’s case. On behalf of Moore, they’ve filed suit against his former emploer, InnoSource Inc., as well. At the time of his surgery, Moore worked as a customer service representative for InnoSource, but left the job after this surgery debacle.
In a press release, Moore explained his decision to leave his job, saying:
“The fact that InnoSource refused to cover any medical treatment for transition-related care made it clear to me that the company that I was working for believed that as a transgender person I was not worthy of equal treatment. I no longer felt valued or that the company really cared about me or my success.”
He discusses his situation overall in the video below, courtesy of the ACLU:
Moore says the post-operation call he received from his care counselor went like this:
“Hey Dashir, I really hate to call you like this, but just got word that, you know UMR [Moore’s health care provider], they’re denying your surgery … And it’s not just your surgery, it’s all things gender dysphoria. We just got the denial the day of your surgery. The surgery was already going on so we’re not gonna stop it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up that this is what’s going on.”
Moore’s employer, apparently, has a policy that excludes any gender-affirming medical expenses. This includes, for example, gender transition surgery, drugs, medications, services, and supplies.
Gender-affirming surgeries can hugely improve quality of life and minimize dysphoria.
In terms of insurance, this sort of backtracking is especially insidious and frustrating. It’s worth considering that, in terms of a medical procedure, a mastectomy for a person assigned female at birth would be covered. But because Moore wanted the procedure under the pretense of gender-affirmation, it apparently isn’t.
Sadly, Moore isn’t alone in this experience. A professor at the University of Arizona, Russell Toomey, just filed a class-action lawsuit against the school after exclusions from his insurance coverage left him in a similar predicament as Moore.
