MondayNight 2/16
I am bit exhausted tonight. This is the result of quite a few nights of little sleep and lots of reworking and tweaking the presentation for my appeal to get my surgeries and supporting treatments covered by our medical plan. I see this as real measure of the Company's support.
The plan, unintentionally, has been paying for my hormone treatment and Psych work, but not anything else. But, on top of that I have had to pull $135,000 out of retirement savings to pay for all I have had done, legal work, and a new wardrobe. But mostly for treatments and taxes. I'm hoping to get back some for the surgery through this appeal, and maybe a bit of a refund from the IRS.
I think it was a strong presentation (over an hour) and focused very much on how the Board could effect the change while they don't have direct authority to actually change the plan. That doesn't make for a high probability of success. But, it is a step that is needed to move forward. At the last minute I provided a slide that gave three possible approaches they could use to make the change work.
Wednesday Tuesday 2/24
I have been waiting to post this because I wanted to have an idea of the results before doing so. The appeal was denied. I think this is one of the very few times I feel upset with Michelin as an employer and embarrassed.
I received high marks for the presentation, and I had planned to share it in this post. But, because the next steps may involve legal or regulatory interventions, I think it is best I not say much more.
I am not done fighting. I will pull a legal and/or advocacy team together and will take it to which ever agency or court will provided the best route to get this paid.
Jaime I am so sorry the appeal was denied. You are a fighter and you will prevail in the end. You are paving the road for all transgendered people including my grand son. Thank you for all you are doing both for yourself and others that are trapped. God bless you always. You are in my prayers.
ReplyDeleteJaime - we met once as I used to work at Aon and you were visiting our office; I don't expect you to remember, don't worry. But I wanted to let you know I enjoy reading about your journey, even the disappointing parts like the appeal denial. It's raw and honest. In my circle of friends I dubbed 2015 "Year of the Trans" because I felt like it was a topic getting much positive media attention, with great help from Kaitlyn's public figure status to Amazon's Transparent being so well received. Well, as I read this, I think 2015 was also your year. You've obviously come a long way already but I think the officialness (not a word, but humor me here) of the GRS, BA and FFS put punctuation on what you'd been working toward. Many congratualtions, and I would love to see more updates about post-op experiences, how you and Karen are doing, and if you're close to retiring and RVing. Thanks for sharing your story.
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