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The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
The Metro Nashville Employee Benefit Board has rejected a proposal that would have expanded insurance coverage to allow for funding to pay for gender reassignment surgeries for city employees.
The Board said that the proposal asked them to look at whether they should pay for “medically necessary” gender reassignment surgeries for employees over the age of 18.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services states that gender reassignment surgery can be considered medically necessary if an individual has a documented diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which is defined as “distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender.”
Those in favor of the proposal claimed that it would make the city “continue to be welcoming for all people” and would help them to recruit more workers.
Based on reports, cost estimates for transition from male to female can cost as much as $140,450 and a transition from female to male can run $124,400, which includes all related procedures, surgeries, hair removal, hormone therapies.
Many members of the board had concerns about covering those costs.
“In most cities we were given comps before, the out of pocket was $15-20,000; here it’s $1000,” said Board Member Jeremy Moseley. “Money still has to be paid to medical providers. Who’s going to pay for that?”
Mayor John Cooper was on board with approving the proposal, releasing the following statement:
“We’re incredibly proud of the Metro employees who stood up and advocated for their own health care today. Working closely with the LGBTQ caucus, our Administration pushed hard to enact this life-saving change to our health care coverage. I appreciate our HR Director, Finance Director, and the board members that I appointed for supporting this change. Unfortunately, the remainder of the board voted against these voices. As a result, our trans employees will have to wait at least another year for their rights to be affirmed by their peers on the Benefits Board.”
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
3 Responses
John Cooper can’t be gone soon enough! What a laughable statement “We’re incredibly proud of the Metro employees who stood up and advocated for their own health care today.” I’m not sure how much courage and provoking is needed these days in American for people to “stand up” and expect others to pay for their whimsical ideas and behaviors. That seems to be the norm anymore.
How would you like to live in a community where you are surprised when the community government does something sane. For your prayer of thanksgiving at the close of this day please remember to give thanks for the fact that you don’t live in one of our leftist ghettos here in Tennessee.
“…standing up for their own health care.”
What a crock of dog dirt.
Ppl that think they deserve to have others pay for a lifetime of medical procedures and drugs for major cosmetic surgery that does not even have a standard.
Practiced by persons that apparently do not even discuss the repercussions or the suicide rate of this act.
Not once have I heard or read the proponents of this butchery consider the maturity of the human brain.
Males age 24–27
Females age 23–25
Brain maturity is followed by emotional stability, which leads to personal discipline and accountability.