in order to receive proper care; “I resented having to keep my
insurance marker as female because the way I saw it, that
simple marker shouldn’t determine what coverage I received.
What should determine my coverage is whatever organs I
currently have, or conditions I am diagnosed with.” Services
that are gender-specific can be very difficult for transgender
individuals to receive because if the service and the gender do
not match, insurance companies deny payment. The insurer
must put a hold on the claim, confirm it with the healthcare
provider, and then manually override the code to allow
payment (Gillespie, 2015). Only eleven out of the fifty states
have bans on insurance exclusions or have transgenderinclusive health benefits for state employees. Only six out of
fifty have both (Human Rights Campaign, 2015c). Federally,
there is no law that explicitly protects the transgender
community from discrimination. In July of 2015, a new bill
was proposed that would change the lives of not only the
transgender community, but the whole LGBT (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender) community. The Equality Act
states that it “Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include
sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the
prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation in places