Thursday 20 December 2012

Judgment Of Health Insurance Netherlands: Intersex Doesn't Exist

Today I received the judgement from SKGZ regarding whether or not my health insurance company, Unive, has to fully cover the permanent hair-removal therapy I'm forced to undergo due to my intersex condition. Their conclusion, contradicting statements made during the hearing [1] a while ago, was that I'm not transgender and haven't undergone surgery or have physical conditions which would warrant such therapy for medical or psychological reasons and thus won't need to be fully covered. The mere 300 Euro a year Unive covers now due to the extended insurance I have with them covers less than half of the costs, with me paying much of that amount myself due to having that extended insurance in the first place.

The final report from SKGZ doesn't list intersex anywhere in the conclusion, fully omitting it as a possible argument to use in favour of me. The overseeing organization for health insurance in the Netherlands, CVZ, also ignored the intersex part. They are ignoring that I am undergoing this therapy because I am _physically_ at least partially female, look female and wish to live in a female role, but due to my intersex condition I had an elevated testosterone level which led to facial hair growth which causes psychological issues for me. It's not optional for me to have it removed.

With this decision I have to once again wonder whether medical institutions and insurance companies/organizations in the Netherlands are all united in this... discrimination against intersex individuals, ignoring their existence and only admitting their existence where it will lead to surgery to 'correct' it. Salient detail is that if I had faked being a transsexual I would have had full coverage here from Unive. No questions asked.

Yet I didn't. And why? Because I only want to be myself, even if it means getting punished for it by every institution and so-called physician and psychologist in the Netherlands for it. Apparently the Netherlands continues its legacy of being an intolerant, backwards, Calvinistic and infuriatingly bureaucratic country.

Someone get me out of here...


Maya


[1] http://mayaposch.blogspot.nl/2012/11/hearing-against-unive-aftermath.html

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