The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that denials of sex change operations will not be automatic. Now they’ll be taken on a case by case basis. There’s no way the social and medical acceptance of how to treat transgenderism is based on anything other than public pressure from vocal activists whose numbers are minuscule. Not how to treat people who identify as transgender, but the condition is treated.
(Fox News) — Transgender people receiving Medicare may no longer be automatically denied coverage for sex reassignment surgeries, a U.S. Department of Health and Services review board ruled Friday in a groundbreaking decision that recognizes the procedures as a medically necessary and effective treatment for individuals who do not identify with their biological sex.
Ruling in favor of a 74-year-old Army veteran whose request to have Medicare pay for her genital reconstruction was denied two years ago, the agency’s Departmental Appeals Board ruled that a three-decade-old HHS rule excluding such surgeries from the procedures covered by the national health program for the elderly and disabled was unjustified.
[…]
Jennifer Levi, a lawyer who directs the Transgender Rights Project of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston, said the ruling does not mean Medicare recipients are necessarily entitled to have sex reassignment surgery paid for by the government.
Instead, the lifting of the coverage ban means they now will be able to seek authorization by submitting documentation from a doctor and mental health professionals stating that surgery is medically indicated in their individual case, Levi said.
“They should either get coverage or, at a minimum, receive an individualized review of the medical need for the specific procedure they seek, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment,” Levi’s organization said in a statement after the ruling was issued.
Transgender health advocates said that because private insurance companies and state-run Medicaid programs that provide health insurance for low-income individuals often take their cue from the federal government on which treatments to approve or exclude, the decision could eventually pave the way for sex-reassignment surgeries to be a routinely covered benefit.
I ask: if a person has properly functioning yet believes they should have different sexual organs, why is viewed as a normal state of mind? Just because a person believes they had been born the wrong gender doesn’t mean they’re correct. Why do we presume the mind is correct and the body needs correction, rather than the properly functioning body is correct and the mind needs correction? After all, this presumption is only applied when it concerns one’s sexuality.
Sifting Reality 
I saw on National Geographic this guy who couldn’t stand that both of his legs were there. For some reason, in his mind, he thought one of his legs had been amputated. And after several psychiatric evaluations, they couldn’t convince him that it was normal to have two working legs. He was deeply depressed, apparently,and tried to remove the leg himself. It didn’t work.
Eventually, he found a doctor that agreed to amputate his leg and some psychiatrist signed off on it. I don’t understand the logic myself. It seems like a clear violation of the Hippocratic oath. Imagine some nut feeling the urge to be set on fire, and imagine that no amount of counseling worked. Would it be okay at that point to set him on fire? I don’t think so.
Medical science is supposed to cure infirmity, not encourage it.
T
I’ve never understood it. Just because someone believed they should be surgically altered doesn’t mean it’s a valid belief.
Would it be loving for a parent to oblige their child who truly believed they should only have one arm, and remove a perfectly functioning one? Like you said, of course not. They’d rightly seek psychological help. Why cant we do this when the appendage in question is a penis instead of an arm or leg?