Client Focus: Eve Enacts Change
The Trans Health Law Project is Legal Council’s newest service area, and it’s an essential one. There is an onslaught of anti-trans legislation in states across the U.S., making it all the more critical to ensure that Illinois is a safe harbor for a community that is being targeted throughout the country. Our client Eve’s* story exemplifies the critical role that collaborative advocacy, perseverance, and humanity play in rendering Illinois a safe state for trans community members.
Eve is a trans woman who was trying to get her health insurance to cover facial feminization surgery—a surgery that’s a very important component of gender-affirming care for many trans people. Eve tried on her own for over a year to secure insurance coverage, and even though it is illegal in the state of Illinois for insurance companies to not cover this type of care, Eve was repeatedly denied coverage, simply because the surgery was related to her gender transition.
This surgery was critically important for Eve’s health and safety; so important that she decided to take on a tremendous amount of loans and go into debt to pay out-of-pocket for the surgery. After her surgery, she tried again to get reimbursement from her insurance company to no avail. That’s when we met Eve.
When Staff Attorney Milo Vieland (he/him) first met with Eve, she told him that, while she wanted her surgery reimbursed and the burden of tens of thousands of dollars of debt she had gone into removed from her shoulders, she also had a larger goal: to prevent other trans people from experiencing the same thing she had. Eve received health coverage through her work as an employee of the state of Illinois, so she knew that all other trans employees of the state were at risk of being denied medically necessary health care.
Over the next several months, Milo partnered with Eve to appeal the denial with her insurance company. In collaboration with Eve, our team eventually secured over $35,000 in reimbursement for her surgery. Eve is now able to keep up with her bills and living expenses as she continues to work to support herself and her family.
And, by partnering with Eve, Legal Council was able to bring this issue to the attention of Governor Pritzker’s office on behalf of all trans employees of the state of Illinois. The Governor’s office has a commitment to health equity for trans people in Illinois and, because of our work with Eve, Legal Council is now working together with the state to advocate for changes that will enable all state employees access to vital healthcare services.
Eve is, in many ways, representative of the clients we see through the Trans Health Law Project every day. Eve contacted Legal Council when a friend of hers who had used our services referred her to us. Before that, she had no idea there was anyone available to help with this kind of issue, assuming she was alone with her experiences of discrimination.
Eve is also emblematic of our clients in that she wants to fight not only for herself but also for the trans community as a whole, to make sure that everyone has access to the healthcare services they need.
* Name has been changed for confidentiality.