On the Basis of Gender: A Medical-Legal Review of Barriers to Healthcare for Transgender and Gender-Expansive Patients

ABSTRACT

Transgender individuals will seek medical intervention for transition-related services as well as medical treatment for general health needs similar to cisgender individuals. However, people in the transgender community face unique barriers to treatment such as the lack of knowledge among health-care professionals, insurance coverage, and legal protections. This paper reviews barriers, major legal cases, and federal policy related to the health needs for transgender and gender expansive individuals. The authors call for a social work response at the macro and micro level. Advocacy for health care access for transgender individuals is a social justice issue social workers are uniquely positioned to work toward. At the micro level, social workers must help educate and advocate for their clients to bring transgender-sensitive practices to the health care system.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• LGBT
• law
• health care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).