Why is this covered by Ohip? This kind of surgery be paid by the Trans. This is wrong.
A non-binary Ontario resident is locked in a legal battle over public funding for surgery to create a vagina while leaving the penis intact.
In a lengthy legal battle that could lead to more requests for individually customized and unorthodox gender-affirming surgeries, an Ontario resident is seeking publicly funded surgery to construct a vagina while preserving the penis.
The case, now before the courts, reflects a small but growing demand for niche surgeries for people who identify as non-binary, meaning neither exclusively female nor exclusively male.
To critics, the procedures are risky experiments that illustrate “how far off the rails” gender-affirming medicine has gone and the excesses of “consumer-driven gender embodiment.”
“Our public health-care system is at the breaking point and really needs to focus on procedures that are medically necessary,” Pamela Buffone, founder of the parents’ group Canadian Gender Report, said in an email to the National Post.
“Is this type of surgery health care? The patient will not be physically healthier because of the operation, which is likely to result in complications and the need for corrective surgeries and further demands on the health system.”
LGBTQ rights groups say such surgeries can profoundly improve a person’s quality of life and reduce the distress and deep sense of unease from gender dysphoria. Health-care providers shouldn’t make assumptions about what care may be medically necessary, Egale Canada argued in a written submission to the court.
“Ultimately OHIP’s interpretation (of a vaginoplasty) is exclusionary and discriminates against nonbinary people on the basis of their gender identity,” Egale said. If there is any ambiguity in what should be publicly covered, it should be resolved in favour of the claimant, they said.
As National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak first reported in September, the case involves 33-year-old K.S., as she is identified in court documents, who was born male but who identifies as female dominant and uses a feminine name.
Ontario’s Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) originally denied K.S.’s request in 2022 for funding for a penile sparing vaginoplasty, a procedure that isn’t available in Canada. The surgery was to be performed at the Crane Center for Transgender Surgery in Austin, Texas.
Is this type of surgery health care?
nationalpost.com
A non-binary Ontario resident is locked in a legal battle over public funding for surgery to create a vagina while leaving the penis intact.
In a lengthy legal battle that could lead to more requests for individually customized and unorthodox gender-affirming surgeries, an Ontario resident is seeking publicly funded surgery to construct a vagina while preserving the penis.
The case, now before the courts, reflects a small but growing demand for niche surgeries for people who identify as non-binary, meaning neither exclusively female nor exclusively male.
To critics, the procedures are risky experiments that illustrate “how far off the rails” gender-affirming medicine has gone and the excesses of “consumer-driven gender embodiment.”
“Our public health-care system is at the breaking point and really needs to focus on procedures that are medically necessary,” Pamela Buffone, founder of the parents’ group Canadian Gender Report, said in an email to the National Post.
“Is this type of surgery health care? The patient will not be physically healthier because of the operation, which is likely to result in complications and the need for corrective surgeries and further demands on the health system.”
LGBTQ rights groups say such surgeries can profoundly improve a person’s quality of life and reduce the distress and deep sense of unease from gender dysphoria. Health-care providers shouldn’t make assumptions about what care may be medically necessary, Egale Canada argued in a written submission to the court.
“Ultimately OHIP’s interpretation (of a vaginoplasty) is exclusionary and discriminates against nonbinary people on the basis of their gender identity,” Egale said. If there is any ambiguity in what should be publicly covered, it should be resolved in favour of the claimant, they said.
As National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak first reported in September, the case involves 33-year-old K.S., as she is identified in court documents, who was born male but who identifies as female dominant and uses a feminine name.
Ontario’s Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) originally denied K.S.’s request in 2022 for funding for a penile sparing vaginoplasty, a procedure that isn’t available in Canada. The surgery was to be performed at the Crane Center for Transgender Surgery in Austin, Texas.
Is this type of surgery health care?
Court to decide if Ontario must pay for surgery to make vagina if patient also wants to keep penis
A non-binary Ontario resident is locked in a legal battle over public funding for surgery to create a vagina while leaving the penis intact
nationalpost.com
