The costs of a gender-reassignment operation for transgender people in the future will be fully covered, not only in practice but also by the law. The costs of the process, instead of 80%, will be fully funded by the Health Insurance Fund in the future, as envisaged by the new amendments to the Law on Health Insurance, drafted at a public hearing by March 28th.
In the association "Spektra", the organization that works to promote and protect the human rights of transgender, gender-based and interpolate people, considers such a proposal an example of good analysis and that what occurs in practice only reflects into the legislative framework.
According to the head of the Association Jovan Ulicevic, amendments to the Law represent a simple recognition of the practice that the Health Insurance Fund finances health interventions, among which is the process of gender adjustment.
"In the practice so far, the costs for all the situations above have been covered in full, and not in the amount of 80%, taking into account the fact that supplementary insurance has never come to life in practice," he said to "Vijesti".
He also added that "Spektra" significantly contributed to the reduction of the costs paid by FZO during the gender reassignment process, in the way they managed to establish cooperation with doctors employed in the health institutions in Montenegro.
"This is also significantly facilitated by the procedure for the community itself, which now has access to experts in the field of mental health, endocrinology, and some surgical interventions. In this regard, we consider that the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Health Insurance is an example of a well-analyzed current situation and a simple mapping of the real situation into the legislative framework. "
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Text by Damira Kalac, on March 22nd 2019, read more at Vijesti
