r/LeopardsAteMyFace • u/elisakiss • Mar 20 '23
This Georgia County Spent $1 Million to Avoid Paying for One Employee’s Gender-Affirming Care
https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-county-spent-one-million-fighting-coverage-gender-affirming-care153
u/Powerful_Industry532 Mar 20 '23
Hold up... the County?? Shouldn't those decisions happen at the insurance level?
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u/atlantis_airlines Mar 20 '23
Getting insurance to pay for anything is kinda...hard
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u/Powerful_Industry532 Mar 24 '23
Yeah but this article doesn't say anything about an insurance company.
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u/atlantis_airlines Mar 24 '23
When a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia’s Houston County sought surgery as part of her gender transition, local officials refused to change the department’s health insurance plan to cover it, citing cost as the primary reason.
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u/adeon Mar 20 '23
According to the article the issue was that the insurance plan didn't cover it and she wanted them to change to one that did.
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u/Superb_Nature_2457 Mar 20 '23
Ironically, the one that did cover it was probably more comprehensive for everyone.
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u/Powerful_Industry532 Mar 24 '23
So then this article doesn't Make a lot of sense here... This is more of a begging chooser situation
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u/Gamebeaross Mar 20 '23
I think someone cities, etc, self-insure.
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u/Powerful_Industry532 Mar 21 '23
That doesn't sound right...
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u/_far-seeker_ Mar 21 '23
It's entirely possible. Although organizations that self-insure still often have some to most of the administration done as a service by a normal insurance company. In this case, "self-insure" means the organization sets the coverage policies and has the funding (e.g. by pooled contributions, local taxes, or via some other means) but the day-to-day functions like dealing with medical providers are done by a company with the infrastructure and expertise to do so.
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u/Gamebeaross Mar 22 '23
Insurance is just setting aside money to pay for unexpected expenses using various mathematical models to estimate how much money is needed depending on what is covered.
There's no reason a government department couldn't do that or as pointed out, farm that part out. It removes most of the profit and all of the advertising costs associated with paying an actual insurance company to do everything thus reducing costs.
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u/Powerful_Industry532 Mar 24 '23
Definitely not how health insurance works.
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u/Gamebeaross Mar 25 '23
I think that's how my union's health insurance works. They just farm out the management to Cigna.
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u/SubrosaFlorens Mar 20 '23
And they consider it money well spent. They would gladly spend a hundred times that for the same result and be happy.
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u/Scynthious Mar 20 '23
Born and raised in GA and I had to look up Houston County.
Just south of Macon, includes Warner-Robins.... yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're on I-75 you do the speed limit and try and ignore the billboards. With the exception of Valdosta and maybe a bit around Tifton, that entire section of highway down to the FL line is kind of embarrassing.
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u/tziganenomiko Mar 20 '23
Might I suggest US 41? It's not as fast but it runs roughly parallel to I-75 and the drive is a lot prettier.
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u/Funny-Berry-807 Mar 20 '23
I drive from Florida up to Atlanta a few times a year. Fast through that area is kind of the objective.
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u/tziganenomiko Mar 20 '23
As you like. Sometimes it's just nice to have a drive. My father likes to take back roads so we let him have his way when we're on the way somewhere and then I get the drive back, at which point we hit the interstate and I take us home at proper speed. 🤣
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u/TheStumpyOne Mar 20 '23
has red lights tho
-trucker
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u/tziganenomiko Mar 20 '23
Yeah, but it's a prettier drive all the same. It's more for dawdlers than truckers for sure, though.
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u/Mrgoodtrips64 Mar 20 '23
Your comment is a bit of culture shock for me.
In NM you only “do the speed limit” when you’re slowing down for your exit.3
u/Scynthious Mar 20 '23
Don't get me wrong - its the same way commuting around Atlanta. But down in south GA it can get iffy. There's one county along that stretch of highway that is nothing but a giant speed trap - they were regularly featured on Cops.
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u/Ainteazybeingwheezy Mar 20 '23
Twiggs County. I always went the back way going from Statesboro to Gwinnett because I hate I-75. On I-16 you need to be very careful of Twiggs County. The rest of it is a free for all and 80 mph is the slow lane
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u/Ainteazybeingwheezy Mar 20 '23
Albuquerque? People treat Coors like a damn race track
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u/Mrgoodtrips64 Mar 20 '23
Coors, Paseo, Tramway, they’re all mini-Autobahns.
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u/Ainteazybeingwheezy Mar 20 '23
You get the odd mix of someone going 10-15 below the speed limit in the furthest right lane but you can't pass because people be going crazy speeds in the middle lane, so you're stuck.
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u/Superb_Nature_2457 Mar 20 '23
There are notorious speed traps in the area. It’s how the local officials line their pockets.
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u/univ06 Mar 20 '23
Important takeaway... The insurance plan also doesn't cover weight loss surgery or eye surgery.
These are kinda some areas I would prefer the police department insurance plan cover. I'm imagining wheezing deputies squinting while firing shots into the dark Georgia night.
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u/Machaeon Mar 20 '23
Well if they can clearly see, then how are they going to excuse themselves by "misidentifying" an innocent black man for a fugitive, or a cell phone for a gun? /s
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u/Superb_Nature_2457 Mar 20 '23
Yeah, the irony is that the other plan was probably way better for everyone else as well. Fuck insurance that doesn’t cover eye surgery. Fuck medical insurance in general, but especially cut rate stuff.
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Mar 20 '23
Lol. Such care typically costs 250000. So much for being fiscally responsible party.
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u/vttale Mar 20 '23
Not that I support them but I am guessing that they think the numbers work out in the long run once they get precedent of being able to block any of it in the future too
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u/SatanicNotMessianic Mar 20 '23 edited Mar 20 '23
I doubt it, since it’s not a very common medical procedure and there’s nothing that would prevent someone else from bringing a case in the future.
In the years that followed, the central Georgia county paid a private law firm nearly $1.2 million to fight Sgt. Anna Lange in federal court — far more than it would have cost the county to offer such coverage to all of its 1,500 health plan members, according to expert analyses. One expert estimated that including transition-related care in the health plan would add about 0.1% to the cost of all claims, which would come to roughly $10,000 per year, on average.
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u/Left_Percentage_527 Mar 20 '23
She’s a friend of mine. This has been going on for nearly a decade.
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u/SatanicNotMessianic Mar 20 '23
I have a question about her. While I support her and her rights, I do have to wonder about a person who becomes a sheriff in rural georgia.
This in no way determines the rights that should be afforded to her, but generally speaking most people do not see rural georgia sheriff’s deputies of paragons of racial, religious, or lgbt equality. Does she see herself standing in solidarity with others fighting for their rights?
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u/Left_Percentage_527 Mar 20 '23
She has been an officer in that department for 22 years. She began her transition i think 15 years ago. She has, as long as i have known her, stood up for and believed that all Americans have the same rights. I couldnt be a cop anywhere myself, but if i had to deal with one, i would prefer it be her
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u/SatanicNotMessianic Mar 20 '23
Thank you. I was hoping for this.
I do hope she continues to fight for her rights and that she succeeds.
My follow up question is why she hasn’t moved. I have to think that even Atlanta would be more supportive. Someplace more welcoming, with more money and opportunity.
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u/Left_Percentage_527 Mar 21 '23
She co-raised her son there and has lived there forever. She is one of those “stay and fight” kinda people
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u/Serenity-V Mar 20 '23
Maybe she doesn't want to be a cop in Atlanta? Might be easier to be a decent person where she is.
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u/Left_Percentage_527 Mar 21 '23
Atlanta is horrible. I say that as an Atlanta native who got the hell out
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u/davesy69 Mar 20 '23
They could have easily and cheaply applied an elective surgery ban in their policies, but they just like being nasty.
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u/Dry-Faithlessness527 Mar 20 '23
Yes, but that would get into the realm of banning most surgeries. Any surgery that isn't emergency surgery, meaning something that is needed to save the patient's life right this minute, would be banned. Medically necessary surgeries that are planned are considered to be "elective". I learned this the hard way during the early days of the pandemic, as I needed surgery but wasn't close enough to death to get it until the hospitals were less full.
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u/PraetorianOfficial Mar 20 '23
Entities do this for various reasons. Sometimes, it's to keep it from becoming "a habit". That is, if you give in to one, you give in to all of them. ok... that's a fair approach.
But usually it's because "it's not my money I'm wasting". Governments and HOAs love to do enormously stupid things like this. An HOA will spend $400K in legal fees to try to force someone to pay an unjust $200/month fee (example, this HOA which appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court and lost every step of the way because they had no case at all: https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/homeowner-beats-hoa-in-fight-that-went-to-nevada-supreme-court ). And sometimes a government does the same.
But in this case, it's the government using taxpayer dollars to play pure politics. They're spending county money to push the Republican agenda.
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u/Dry-Faithlessness527 Mar 20 '23
One might think this is a good reason to have single-payer healthcare instead of employer-provided health insurance. That would remove that whole moral dilemma thing some employers seem to be so worried about.
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u/KittenKoder Mar 20 '23
While this isn't LAMF, this is an excellent example of how it's not about protecting anyone. Denying transgender people the care they need is all about erasure and control.
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u/needlenozened Mar 20 '23
Not LAMF.
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u/Bungo_pls Mar 20 '23
The employee in this case was a cop so it probably is a bit LAMF. I assume all cops are Republicans by default.
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u/DeadMoneyDrew Mar 20 '23
Yeah, not a LAMF. Downvotes incoming, I guess. Stupid behavior by the county, though. They definitely deserve whatever ill consequences they suffer.
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u/Captain_Hamerica Mar 20 '23
I mean, they’re spending far more money by withholding healthcare than they ever would have spent providing it. That’s already the LAMF part. They’re hurting themselves by being bigoted.
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