Coming soon: MyTransHealth, an app connecting trans people to knowledgeable, reliable and affordable healthcare providers.
19% of trans people have been refused healthcare because of their gender identity. 50% of trans people have had to teach their doctors about trans-related medical care. 28% of trans people have been harassed in medical settings. This app is desperately needed. Follow them at mytranshealth.
Kade Clark doin’ big things (I would tag him but I don’t think he has a tumblr).
Anonymous:
I'm about to get kicked off my parents' health insurance plan because I'm too old to stay on it or whatever. The problem is that I don't have a job with health benefits. What are my options? I'm generally healthy, but I'm on a couple prescriptions, and I don't really know how I'm going to pay after I'm not insured. :/
Ugh, sorry friend. That stinks.
Your options right now are:
- Talk to your current doctor about getting you on an affordable medication regimen with $4 drugs.
- buy insurance (expensive)
- sign up for a healthcare plan on healthcare.gov in the fall when signup time comes around (only slightly less expensive)
- find out if you might qualify for Medicaid (also check healthcare.gov or medicaid.gov)
- Search for local free clinics and apply and see if you qualify
- Search for cash-pay clinics or “concierge clinics” that allow you to pay a monthly membership fee for primary care
- Call local clinics (especially residency clinics, if you’re in a larger city with an internal medicine or family medicine program) and find out if they take cash-pay patients, and if they offer a sliding-scale fee system or payment plans.
- Search for a health care center that can provide you with free or inexpensive primary care here.
Do you have any resources for finding doctors who are competent in working with trans (specifically ftn or non-binary, ideally) patients?
I do not unfortunately, but i know (depending on where you live) there are usually websites to help find LGBT health care (like rainbowhealthontario.ca for ontario) and from there you should be able to find a number of clinics that do trans health care.
granted not all clinics that do trans care list on websites like that, so tracking down health care can be a bit of an adventure, but usually if you call a clinic that doesnt have what you need they can at least refer you to other clinics they know of in the area.
when trying to find a gender therapist or doctor who is nonbinary-inclusive it’s perfectly ok to just call and ask. you’re allowed to ask prerequisite questions for anyone you’re considering taking on as a healthcare provider. so you would ask things like “have you ever worked with nonbinary/genderqueer patients before” or ask them their opinions on nonbinary transition and stuff like that. if they dont already know what nonbinary or genderqueer means (a lot of them use “genderqueer” primarily) than they probably aren’t the right person for you.
I wish i could give you something that would save you going through a bunch of online listings and calling a bunch of clinics, but unfortunately there still arent a lot of organized nonbinary-specific resources like that.
good luck!
-newt
