#health insurance toronto

[eltoncurtis]

Comparing Health Insurance Plans: How to Choose the Right One for You

Selecting the right health insurance plan is a pivotal decision that directly impacts your well-being. With a myriad of options available, understanding how to compare health insurance plans is crucial for making an informed choice. Here's a guide to help you navigate the complexities and choose a plan that aligns with your unique needs.1. Assess Your Health Needs:   - Begin by evaluating your specific health needs. Consider factors such as age, pre-existing conditions, and the health needs of your family members. Insurance Tiger, a leading provider of health insurance solutions, offers a range of plans tailored to diverse health requirements.2. Coverage and Benefits:   - Compare the coverage offered by different plans. Look for comprehensive coverage that includes hospitalization, outpatient services, and critical illness coverage. Insurance Tiger stands out for its commitment to providing extensive coverage in its health insurance solutions, ensuring you're well-protected in various health scenarios.3. Customer Reviews and Ratings:   - Research customer reviews and ratings to gauge the satisfaction of existing policyholders. Positive feedback is indicative of reliable and customer-friendly services. Insurance Tiger's commitment to customer satisfaction is evident in its positive reviews, making them a trusted choice for health insurance solutions.

[topoet]

OHIP

pull up a chair My Ontario Health card expired! I’d received a notification along with forms to fill in to get a new but, gasp, I kept putting it off. On my birthday in June I went to their web site to see what documentation I needed for the renewal. There a button for booking an appointment on line & I did that & was given one July. I found there was a Service Ontario office on the Danforth –…

[platinummutual]

Discover Affordable Non-Medical Insurance Options in Toronto

Platinum Mutual Ltd offers top-notch non medical insurance in Toronto, ensuring hassle-free coverage without medical exams. Protect your loved ones with our reliable and affordable plans tailored to your needs. So, trust Platinum Mutual Ltd for peace of mind and comprehensive insurance solutions. Get covered today with us.

[rickanderson123]

Understanding the Benefits of Comprehensive Health Insurance Solutions

Health insurance is a must-have in today’s world. But what do comprehensive health insurance solutions really offer? Let’s dive into it.

What is Comprehensive Health Insurance?

Comprehensive health insurance covers a wide range of medical services. It includes hospital stays, doctor visits, prescription drugs, preventive care, and sometimes dental and vision care. Essentially, it aims to cover most health-related expenses.

Why Do You Need Comprehensive Health Insurance?

Medical emergencies can strike anytime. Are you prepared for the costs? Without insurance, a hospital visit could drain your savings. Comprehensive health insurance shields you from these unexpected expenses.

Key Benefits of Comprehensive Health Insurance Solutions

Wide Coverage: Comprehensive plans cover various medical services. This means fewer out-of-pocket expenses for you. From routine check-ups to emergency surgeries, you’re protected.

Preventive Care: Many plans include preventive care. This covers vaccinations, screenings, and regular check-ups. Why is this important? Early detection of diseases can lead to better treatment outcomes.

Access to a Network of Providers: Insurers often partner with a network of hospitals and doctors. With health insurance, you access high-quality care from trusted providers. This network ensures you get the best treatment available.

Peace of Mind: Know that you’re covered for health issues. Isn’t it reassuring? You don’t have to stress about the financial impact of a health crisis. Focus on your recovery instead.

Cashless Hospitalization: Many health insurance plans offer cashless hospitalization. What does this mean for you? No upfront payments for medical services. The insurance company settles the bill directly with the hospital.

Tax Benefits: Did you know health insurance premiums can be tax-deductible? Save money on taxes while protecting your health. It’s a win-win.

How to Choose the Right Comprehensive Health Insurance

Choosing the right plan depends on your needs. Consider these points:

Coverage Needs: What medical services do you need?

Budget: Can you afford the premium?

Network Hospitals: Are your preferred hospitals and doctors in the network?

Additional Benefits: Look for added perks like wellness programs or maternity coverage.

Comprehensive health insurance is a smart investment. It offers wide coverage, preventive care, and peace of mind. By understanding its benefits, you can make an informed choice. Protect your health and your finances with the right health insurance plan.

Ready to secure your future? Look into comprehensive health insurance solutions today.

[pankajbhatiacanada]

Protect Your Loved Ones with Emergency Medical Insurance for Parents

Secure your parents' well-being with comprehensive emergency medical insurance. Pankaj Bhatia provides peace of mind and financial protection in times of need. Get the coverage your parents deserve today!

Visit Us: https://goo.gl/maps/Hofp4JPwbMXPkU748

[insurance-tiger]

Most of us think as we are healthy and follow a healthy lifestyle, we do not need health insurance. Your OHIP program does not cover the cost of certain diseases and dental needs. When you fall sick it becomes difficult to get insured or has to pay heavy premiums.To avoid such situations, get insured before it's too late.For the best rates, call us now!

For more information:

Visit: Health insurance Toronto

Call: 1-800-930-4940

Email: info@insurancetiger.ca

[akini-financial-services-inc-7]

Why Health Insurance is Right for You

As you step into a hospital, you imagine how light your wallet will be when you leave. The medicinal field is the frontrunner, but it comes with a high cost. A few days' stays at the hospital will set you back some lakhs. So, if you are in a hospital for treatment, the health insurance in Toronto will save your wallet and your day.

With Toronto health insurance, all your medical bills are paid by your policy provider. But you need to pay an annual fee like a premium or use monthly instalments. Based on the policy, the indemnities will protect your wallet by covering hospitalization charges, treatment expenses, laboratory costs, ambulance costs, and other medical bills.

How does health indemnities work?

Getting medical indemnities at a young age can be a wise decision, as the premiums would be lower. Most policies do not cover pre-existing illnesses that occur within 30 days of the date of purchase. When you don't have medical coverage yet, here are some reasons that will ensure its necessity.

Treatment without cash

Insurance providers have plenty of hospitals under them. It is known as a network hospital. If you visit any of these hospitals for treatment, you can flash the insurance card or policy number, and things are taken care of. When you select a non-network hospital, you must pay for the treatment and get the reimbursement later. Consequently, cashless treatment is a better option with medical policies.

Check-ups are provided at no cost

Several insurance companies offer free health check-ups for people each year as a complimentary benefit. Plus, post-hospitalization and ambulance charges are among the many benefits that cover in medical policies.

When you want medical coverage at an affordable price, contact Akini Financial Services, Inc., right away!

[insuredcan3]

Health Insurance in Toronto

Like our health is important, oral hygiene is equally important. Every individual should visit twice a year for a regular checkup. Unfortunately, dental treatment costs are slightly high in Canada, especially when you need major treatment such as cosmetic dental surgery.

[insuredcan]

Health & Dental Insurance-Affordable Health Coverage

Health & Dental Insurance Plan has many varieties to cover prescription drugs, dental care and so much more. Guard yourself from medical expenses not covered by provincial health insurance. Health & Dental Insurance in Toronto by Insuredcan offers a extensive variety of health and dental insurance plans for both individuals and families. Our plans can cover just medical expenses or dental expenses, or if needed, a wide-ranging list of benefits. We have special health insurance and dental plans that don’t require a medical questionnaire or exam, as long as you apply within few days of your group insurance benefits ending. We even have plans for minor business groups.

If you aren’t covered by a Health & Dental Insurance in Ontario by Insuredcan, then you know how rapidly medical bills can add up. Prescription drugs, dental checkups, massage or physiotherapy, new eyeglasses – the list of probable expenses goes on and the annual expenses can easily add up to thousands of dollars. We are sure you’ll find exactly the right coverage – whether you want coverage for you, your family, or even for your employees.

We understand how busy life can be - it's hard to find the time to get it all done. That's where we come in. Our mission is simple; making it easier for you to secure peace of mind that your family is covered, no matter what. We get it – you want to get insurance quickly as well as easily. We are a squad of people just like you – doing everything we can to protect our family and ensure they are taken care of, no matter what. We help remove the needless expenses, meetings, and bad advice. We’ve made it easier for you to buy and secure your Health & Dental Insurance in Toronto by Insuredcan.

Protecting Your Future

There is nothing more significant than protecting your family. And while putting a dollar amount on the value of that protection is unbearable, the need to create a financial buffer for them when you are gone is vital. And Health & Dental Insurance in Toronto by Insuredcan is typically a very good value; and it is indispensible for your family in the event of health as well as dental expenses.

Affordable Care

Because it impacts almost every facet of life, Health & Dental Insurance in Toronto by Insuredcan may be the most significant coverage in your portfolio. Unexpected medical bills can devastate your finances. Health insurance doesn’t just aid you pay for care; it can protect you and your family economically in the event of serious and or chronic illness.

Since care costs are so unpredictable, proper coverage can give you positive peace of mind in knowing you are protected from most of these costs. Proper coverage also means you have options. When you don’t have acceptable insurance, you’re at the mercy of the healthcare system, which often means no care at all.

Tax Credits

Consumers are also offered tax credits if their household income falls below recognized thresholds. The law also requires penalties, based on income or number of dependents, for consumers who choose not to participate in a health care strategy. Until recently, most people got their health insurance from their employer, as well as those with lower incomes received coverage from the government. But more and more people are buying private health insurance plans tailor-made for individuals in addition to families.

If you find yourself in this position, without a strong understanding of what your coverage should be, talk to the experts at Insuredcan today.

Why Choose Insuredcan?

Because Insuredcan is an independent agency offering real time health insurance quotes as well as online applications from multiple health insurance companies, we believe in over-all transparency. Compare options and then apply online from the ease of your own home or office. We can help you simplify what seems complex and aid you choose from quality, competitive health care plans

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The real AI fight

Tonight (November 27), I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

Last week's spectacular OpenAI soap-opera hijacked the attention of millions of normal, productive people and nonsensually crammed them full of the fine details of the debate between "Effective Altruism" (doomers) and "Effective Accelerationism" (AKA e/acc), a genuinely absurd debate that was allegedly at the center of the drama.

Very broadly speaking: the Effective Altruists are doomers, who believe that Large Language Models (AKA "spicy autocomplete") will someday become so advanced that it could wake up and annihilate or enslave the human race. To prevent this, we need to employ "AI Safety" – measures that will turn superintelligence into a servant or a partner, nor an adversary.

Contrast this with the Effective Accelerationists, who also believe that LLMs will someday become superintelligences with the potential to annihilate or enslave humanity – but they nevertheless advocate for faster AI development, with fewer "safety" measures, in order to produce an "upward spiral" in the "techno-capital machine."

Once-and-future OpenAI CEO Altman is said to be an accelerationists who was forced out of the company by the Altruists, who were subsequently bested, ousted, and replaced by Larry fucking Summers. This, we're told, is the ideological battle over AI: should cautiously progress our LLMs into superintelligences with safety in mind, or go full speed ahead and trust to market forces to tame and harness the superintelligences to come?

This "AI debate" is pretty stupid, proceeding as it does from the foregone conclusion that adding compute power and data to the next-word-predictor program will eventually create a conscious being, which will then inevitably become a superbeing. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding faster and faster horses, we'll get a locomotive:

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

As Molly White writes, this isn't much of a debate. The "two sides" of this debate are as similar as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Yes, they're arrayed against each other in battle, so furious with each other that they're tearing their hair out. But for people who don't take any of this mystical nonsense about spontaneous consciousness arising from applied statistics seriously, these two sides are nearly indistinguishable, sharing as they do this extremely weird belief. The fact that they've split into warring factions on its particulars is less important than their unified belief in the certain coming of the paperclip-maximizing apocalypse:

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/effective-obfuscation

White points out that there's another, much more distinct side in this AI debate – as different and distant from Dee and Dum as a Beamish Boy and a Jabberwork. This is the side of AI Ethics – the side that worries about "today’s issues of ghost labor, algorithmic bias, and erosion of the rights of artists and others." As White says, shifting the debate to existential risk from a future, hypothetical superintelligence "is incredibly convenient for the powerful individuals and companies who stand to profit from AI."

After all, both sides plan to make money selling AI tools to corporations, whose track record in deploying algorithmic "decision support" systems and other AI-based automation is pretty poor – like the claims-evaluation engine that Cigna uses to deny insurance claims:

https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-pxdx-medical-health-insurance-rejection-claims

On a graph that plots the various positions on AI, the two groups of weirdos who disagree about how to create the inevitable superintelligence are effectively standing on the same spot, and the people who worry about the actual way that AI harms actual people right now are about a million miles away from that spot.

There's that old programmer joke, "There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't." But of course, that joke could just as well be, "There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand ternary, those who understand binary, and those who don't understand either":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/11/the-ten-types-of-people/

What's more, the joke could be, "there are 10 kinds of people, those who understand hexadecenary, those who understand pentadecenary, those who understand tetradecenary [und so weiter] those who understand ternary, those who understand binary, and those who don't." That is to say, a "polarized" debate often has people who hold positions so far from the ones everyone is talking about that those belligerents' concerns are basically indistinguishable from one another.

The act of identifying these distant positions is a radical opening up of possibilities. Take the indigenous philosopher chief Red Jacket's response to the Christian missionaries who sought permission to proselytize to Red Jacket's people:

https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5790/

Red Jacket's whole rebuttal is a superb dunk, but it gets especially interesting where he points to the sectarian differences among Christians as evidence against the missionary's claim to having a single true faith, and in favor of the idea that his own people's traditional faith could be co-equal among Christian doctrines.

The split that White identifies isn't a split about whether AI tools can be useful. Plenty of us AI skeptics are happy to stipulate that there are good uses for AI. For example, I'm 100% in favor of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group using an LLM to classify and extract information from the Innocence Project New Orleans' wrongful conviction case files:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

Automating "extracting officer information from documents – specifically, the officer's name and the role the officer played in the wrongful conviction" was a key step to freeing innocent people from prison, and an LLM allowed HRDAG – a tiny, cash-strapped, excellent nonprofit – to make a giant leap forward in a vital project. I'm a donor to HRDAG and you should donate to them too:

https://hrdag.networkforgood.com/

Good data-analysis is key to addressing many of our thorniest, most pressing problems. As Ben Goldacre recounts in his inaugural Oxford lecture, it is both possible and desirable to build ethical, privacy-preserving systems for analyzing the most sensitive personal data (NHS patient records) that yield scores of solid, ground-breaking medical and scientific insights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eaV8SWdjQ

The difference between this kind of work – HRDAG's exoneration work and Goldacre's medical research – and the approach that OpenAI and its competitors take boils down to how they treat humans. The former treats all humans as worthy of respect and consideration. The latter treats humans as instruments – for profit in the short term, and for creating a hypothetical superintelligence in the (very) long term.

As Terry Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax reminds us, this is the root of all sin: "sin is when you treat people like things":

https://brer-powerofbabel.blogspot.com/2009/02/granny-weatherwax-on-sin-favorite.html

So much of the criticism of AI misses this distinction – instead, this criticism starts by accepting the self-serving marketing claim of the "AI safety" crowd – that their software is on the verge of becoming self-aware, and is thus valuable, a good investment, and a good product to purchase. This is Lee Vinsel's "Criti-Hype": "taking press releases from startups and covering them with hellscapes":

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Criti-hype and AI were made for each other. Emily M Bender is a tireless cataloger of criti-hypeists, like the newspaper reporters who breathlessly repeat " completely unsubstantiated claims (marketing)…sourced to Altman":

https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/111464030855880383

Bender, like White, is at pains to point out that the real debate isn't doomers vs accelerationists. That's just "billionaires throwing money at the hope of bringing about the speculative fiction stories they grew up reading – and philosophers and others feeling important by dressing these same silly ideas up in fancy words":

https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/111464024432217299

All of this is just a distraction from real and important scientific questions about how (and whether) to make automation tools that steer clear of Granny Weatherwax's sin of "treating people like things." Bender – a computational linguist – isn't a reactionary who hates automation for its own sake. On Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 – the excellent podcast she co-hosts with Alex Hanna – there is a machine-generated transcript:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417

There is a serious, meaty debate to be had about the costs and possibilities of different forms of automation. But the superintelligence true-believers and their criti-hyping critics keep dragging us away from these important questions and into fanciful and pointless discussions of whether and how to appease the godlike computers we will create when we disassemble the solar system and turn it into computronium.

The question of machine intelligence isn't intrinsically unserious. As a materialist, I believe that whatever makes me "me" is the result of the physics and chemistry of processes inside and around my body. My disbelief in the existence of a soul means that I'm prepared to think that it might be possible for something made by humans to replicate something like whatever process makes me "me."

Ironically, the AI doomers and accelerationists claim that they, too, are materialists – and that's why they're so consumed with the idea of machine superintelligence. But it's precisely because I'm a materialist that I understand these hypotheticals about self-aware software are less important and less urgent than the material lives of people today.

It's because I'm a materialist that my primary concerns about AI are things like the climate impact of AI data-centers and the human impact of biased, opaque, incompetent and unfit algorithmic systems – not science fiction-inspired, self-induced panics over the human race being enslaved by our robot overlords.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/#taking-up-a-lot-of-space

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[eltoncurtis]

How to Choose the Right Health Insurance Plan in Toronto

Choosing the right health insurance solutions in Toronto can be a daunting task with so many options available in the market. However, it is essential to select the right insurance plan to ensure financial security and accessibility to medical care during times of need. This blog will provide four essential steps to consider when selecting a health insurance plan in Toronto.

Step 1 - Determine needs and budget

Choosing the right health insurance plan in Toronto is to determine your healthcare needs and budget. Assess the type of medical care and frequency of doctor visits, prescription drugs, and other preventive services you may need. Consider your budget, including monthly premiums, deductibles, copayments, and out-of-pocket expenses. Knowing your healthcare needs and budget will help you narrow down your choices and select a plan that suits your needs.

Step 2 - Research available plans

Researching available health insurance plans is the second thing you should consider. Gathering information on various plans from different providers can help you compare costs, coverage options, and network of doctors and hospitals. Online resources such as government healthcare websites, insurance companies, and brokers can provide useful information on different health insurance solutions and their benefits.

Step 3 - Review benefits

The third step is to review the plan’s benefits, coverage, and restrictions. Check if the plan covers the healthcare services you need such as hospitalization, maternity care, mental health, and prescription drugs. Review the exclusions and limitations of the plan. Limitations can be pre-existing conditions, out-of-network providers, and waiting periods. Make sure you understand the plan’s copayment, coinsurance, and deductibles and how they apply to various services.

Step 4 - Consult with insurance brokers

The final step is to speak with qualified insurance brokers or agents to ask questions and clarify any doubts you may have about the plan. They can provide valuable insights and advice on selecting health insurance solutions that meets your needs and budget. Consider the costs of the plan and whether it aligns with your financial goals and objectives. Also, check if the plan covers emergency care and urgent care visits.

Choosing the right health insurance plan in Toronto requires careful consideration of one’s healthcare needs, budget, researching available plans, reviewing the plan’s benefits, and seeking advice from insurance brokers or agents. With these essential steps, you can select a health insurance plan that provides financial security and access to quality medical care when you need it most.

[mudwerks]

(via America! Where Even Rockstars Need To Crowdfund Their Medical Care)

Matthew Sweet, best known for the 1990s power-pop hit “Girlfriend,” was in Toronto, on tour with Hanson this month when he suffered a debilitating stroke — and, unfortunately for him, he is not Canadian. If he were, he’d have been able to get treatment for the stroke without worrying about going bankrupt. But he’s an American, so he’s kind of screwed!

According to his manager, Catherine Lyons of Russell Carter Artist Management, “the doctors and hospital care in Toronto were instrumental in saving Matthew's life, but health care is not free for Americans in Canada. He must now be flown back to the States on an ambulance transport plane with medical staff on board, to a specialized rehabilitation center, where he will receive around-the-clock care and therapy for six weeks. He will then require months of treatment and rehabilitation that we hope will lead to a full recovery.”

Now, because that kind of care will be so expensive in the United States — at least a quarter of a million dollars — Lyons has started a GoFundMe for Sweet, who does not have health insurance, to help pay his bills.

This is a stupid way to do things. It’s cruel, yes. It’s heartbreaking, for sure. But most of all, it’s stupid and inefficient.

[platinummutual]

Maximizing Benefits with Group Health Plans in Toronto

Platinum Mutual Ltd offers comprehensive group health plans insurance in Toronto, tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses and their employees. Our expert advisors work with you to design customized plans that provide robust coverage, including medical, dental, and vision benefits. We focus on delivering cost-effective solutions that promote employee well-being and satisfaction. Trust Platinum Mutual Ltd for reliable, flexible, and competitive group health insurance plans.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

When Kyle Truong needed medical attention for a respiratory infection last year, he said there weren't many convenient options for accessing timely care. Truong, who lives in Toronto, hasn't had a family doctor for about four years.

But then he discovered a private clinic where he could quickly get an appointment with a nurse practitioner, though it would not be covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP).

"First I was a little disappointed," Truong, 29, said. "Because if I'm paying tax dollars and we're supposed to have great health-care coverage, it kind of sucks that I have to pay for accessibility in this case."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aaron Kimberly

Published: Dec 18, 2021

Between 1995-2006 I was a part of the butch lesbian community. During those years, despite my life-long and sometimes intense gender dysphoria, I hadn’t given any serious thought to medically transitioning. It wasn’t even on my radar as a possibility until after 2000. The idea of medically transitioning seemed fringe, far-fetched, and risky.

Most of the butches I knew also had gender dysphoria (GD) or rather, Gender Identity Disorder (GID), as it was called then. Many butches I knew in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, and later Vancouver, were strong, stoic people. I admired many of them. I know that their lives weren’t always easy, but they carried themselves with dignity. They had butch “brotherhood” and femmes who adored them. Many were “stone” which meant that their GID made it difficult for them to relate to their female anatomy so didn’t allow themselves to be touched by anyone, or rarely. They were often harassed and abused for being masculine women, as I was. It was often stressful using female public washrooms, because our gender ambiguity made people so uncomfortable. There was a term “butch bladder” to reference the ways we’d avoid using bathrooms in public.

In the early-mid 2000s, more and more FTMs were appearing in the community, alongside the butches. Many lesbian spaces welcomed them, some didn’t. It seemed to me at the time that butches were presented with two options: we could choose to be butches, or we could choose to be FTM “trans guys”. Why people chose one or the other...that was very individual and personal. It really came down to which option solved a problem and made life easier. The problem could be homophobic parents, fatigue from being harassed, differing degrees of dysphoria and bodily discomfort, not understanding what GID is, poor social or occupational functioning, trauma, other mental health challenges like depression or the anxiety that seemed inevitable for us. Some transitioned but still identified as butch women. They chose medical interventions to look more masculine, not to identify as men. Some trans guys said they never had GID at all. I don’t know what their motivations for transitioning were. Some said “political reasons”. There were some who were big fans of Queer Theory icons like Judith Butler and Judith Halberstam. Those women adopted male personas - intentional “female masculinity” - as an expression of Queer Theory, not to be men/male. I chose to transition soon after a gay man was beaten to death in a nearby park.

If kids with gender dysphoria today are anything like who we were 20 years ago, I feel saddened by their trajectory. Others see benefits: Access to medical interventions has been made easier. They no longer have to do a “real-life test” (live their life as the opposite sex for 2 years without medical assistance). They don’t have to go through months or years of therapy and assessment. More is now known about the effects and risks of hormones. The surgeries have improved, are easier to access and now paid for by insurance. (I paid for my own mastectomy out of pocket, and was on the SRS surgery waitlist for 10 years.)

But, what have we done? Have we eliminated all of the conditions for why a butch girl would find their innate masculinity hard to live with? Have we made the lives of butch women better and safer? Have we eliminated homophobic families, communities, employers, clinicians and policies? Are we educating young people what gender dysphoria is, in evidence-based terms, supporting them to integrate that into a healthy identity and self-image? Do we tell masculine girls how attractive they are? Do they have an abundance of healthy role models? Are they fully embraced and integrated into their workforces, educational settings, faith communities… or, are butches still getting weird looks from strangers? Are they still getting yelled at in public bathrooms? Are young, obnoxious young men still yelling slurs out their car windows as they drive by a butch woman? Do gender non-conforming women still fear for their lives in some places? Can they get Brandon Teena out of their heads? Can they travel the world freely? Can they find clothing they like that fits their bodies well?

I’m not convinced we’ve made any real progress at all. I think we’ve just made it easier for people to jump ship, younger and faster, and gave it a different spin. We now call that “self-actualization”. We’ve facilitated a better illusion. We’ve convinced more and more people that the illusion is real. We continue to push for better surgeries. Penile and uterine transplants are on the horizon. Young people are flooding into clinics. They can’t keep up with the demand. Activists have pushed Queer Theory as an explanation for our difference, displacing evidence-based clinical definitions of GID/GD. It’s no longer talked about as a condition that requires treatment but a natural human variation that requires affirmation in whatever form we demand (often life-long medicalization). I’ve travelled that road to its end, and its hurt just as much as it’s helped.

The surgeries available to FTMs right now are awful. A double mastectomy and phalloplasty or metoidioplasty are gruesome procedures to go through. The US surgeon I went to for metoidioplasty boasts low complication rates, but the anecdotal evidence I’ve witnessed (myself and everyone I know who had the procedure there and elsewhere) is close to a 100% complication rate. One guy at the surgical recovery centre I stayed at started to hemorrhage and was laying on the floor unable to reach the call bell when another FTM patient found him and advocated for him to be rushed to hospital. Fistulas and strictures are the most common problem. I chose metoidioplasty because it’s thought to be the less risky of the two options. I immediately developed two large fistulas (meaning that my urethra burst open in two places) that needed additional surgery to repair. I couldn’t bathe or go swimming for a year until those openings were repaired. I have chronic perineum pain, altered bowel function due to changes in my pelvic muscles, and no sensation in most of my chest. When we have complications, local physicians and surgeons don’t know what to do. So we have to wait, and travel to whoever can help.

Listen, I don’t doubt that sometimes medical transition is helpful for people. It’s not my place to say they can’t or shouldn’t. But let’s not sell this like it’s a Disney park ride. The marketing of everything trans is ridiculously misleading. Don’t put sparkles and rainbows over real pain as though that helps at all. It’s insulting.

If we really want to help these kids, we need to make it easier for lesbian kids. Butch kids. All gender non-conforming kids. The quirky and awkward kids. Kids who feel they don’t fit it. Let’s get better at working with parents and preserving families. Be honest about what medical transition is really about. No one really changes biological sex and these procedures are really hard to go through. Why are we putting all of our resources into escaping brutality rather than eliminating brutality? We’re cutting up our bodies because our lived reality is worse. Why do we celebrate that?

Medical transition is but one option for those with GD. We need to reclaim our understanding of GD as a condition so that we can have reality based-conversations and solve real personal and social problems. “Trans” as a concept, masks many underlying issues. A queer theory-based understanding of myself worsened my GD. Medical transition became an addiction. The illusion only works if we’re lucky enough to pass and everyone else plays along perfectly. It’s an exhausting game of whack-a-mole to dodge the reminders of my female past and female biology. How is that kind of dissociation desirable? Some people may benefit from medically transitioning, but we still need a reality-based understanding of ourselves, to keep our feet on the ground.

Our children deserve better. If this sounds transphobic to you, you’re a part of the problem. Owning our reality for what it is isn’t self-hatred. It’s self-acceptance. Having different ideas and a different vision of how to move forward isn't hatred. Hatred was the skinheads who circled around us at the small 1992 Winnipeg gay and lesbian march, long before Pride was a parade. Hatred was the men who drove from the suburbs into Vancouver with the intent to "kill a fag" and murdered Aaron Webster in Stanley Park. I’m well acquainted with phobia. This isn't phobia. This is love.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Solarpunk … orthodontics?

My jaw hurts.

It’s hurt for decades; I started clenching it at night when I was asleep when I was a preteen. This coincided with several factors, none of which I think are wholly the source but were probably contributors to the issue: we had just moved cities and I was under a ton of stress moving to a new neighbourhood and starting at a new school for the first time, I had just begun an orthodontics saga of many years which started with wearing headgear to forcibly shove my upper back molars further back into my skull in order to make room for the rest of my upper teeth to move backwards (with the eventual help of braces) to correct an overbite that was starting to affect my bite, and that I was an extremely anxious eldest child. Looking back, it’s clear I was on the spectrum and had a diagnosable anxiety disorder. But discovering that would be much further in the future.

All I knew at the time was that my jaw hurt. I told my dentist and orthodontist and they recommended I sleep on my back, so that I would have less chance of clenching. I did this, and still to this day must choose: do I sleep clenching my jaw, or with my mouth wide open? I have a choice between a) painful muscles or b) terrible breath in the morning + slowly yellowing teeth. Hoorah. I wasn’t given any other advice.

It is at this point that I would have liked any of the professionals involved in the process to have talked to me about the ramifications of seriously and irrevocably altering the shape of my jaw on the surrounding musculature but frankly, I’m not sure they were trained to do that. And by “that” I mean talking to children, communicating professional knowledge to a lay audience, and knowing about the muscles of the face all at the same time.

I would hope that in a future solarpunk society, there would be people with those skillsets employed by health professionals to communicate and emphasize a more holistic look at healthcare - in a way that meets people where they’re at. I was thirteen; I wasn’t ready to hear or understand even the little that dentists would tell me now in my late thirties. I needed someone skilled to discuss this with me. The braces and headgear needed to happen: my bite was getting painful, my overbite was growing so extreme. But even a knowledge of the side effects would have been empowering to me, as a child. I had very little say in any of this process, though I got to pick the colour of the elastics around my braces, yay.

My jaw still hurt.

In the early days of 2012, I woke up one morning and couldn’t chew my food without pain: not even soft foods such as pancakes were safe. I made an emergency appointment with my dentist at the time, who quickly assessed the issue and whipped up a mouthguard for me. I didn’t have insurance at the time (having aged out of my parents’ coverage, and none afforded by my college), and the dentist was sensitive to that, and gave me a discount. Bless him; I’m sure he’s long retired, but I hope that if that little family dentist office off the Danforth in Toronto is still in operation, that it’s seeing some good years.

Wearing a mouthguard every single night to bed wasn’t foreign to me, because I’d worn the retainer I was given after my braces came off religiously for many years until about two years before this. I still wear a retainer to this day: it not only makes it so that I am not clenching quite as hard, but it saves my teeth from the bone-cracking pressure. (I was informed by my current dentist that clenching my teeth is a major contributor to my receding gums, which is a current dental issue I have, yay again.)

My jaw still hurts now, though.

In that future solarpunk world, I’m sure young people wouldn’t wake up with debilitating pain in their jaw and be forced to think above all else about how this is a financial setback. In a future solarpunk world, I would hope that insurance coverage would be a thing of the past, as it would be unnecessary. I don’t know how the details of that would work out. I just know it would save so many young people from worsening the anxiety that was already so bad that it led to jaw pain.

When I moved to a new city and saw a new chiropractor, he would help me to mobilize and relieve the tension somewhat in those muscles at the end of each appointment. It helped, somewhat, especially to mitigate the damage caused by the stress of graduate school - and then a car accident, and then COVID.

I was finally diagnosed with an anxiety disorder several years ago, and though I’m mitigating it to my best abilities, I haven’t stopped clenching my jaw while I sleep, or during the day subconsciously. I’m still searching for some sort of relief other than constantly wearing my nightguard, which is just an automatic thing that I do after brushing my teeth every night. (I don’t think that this sort of wearable tech makes me a cyborg, just a boring responsible person.)

In a solarpunk world, many people are going to need dental surgery. Many people are going to need orthodontic interventions. It’s just a fact. But what can we do now to make sure that the dentists and orthodontists of the future actually work to make their patients’ lives better, not just their teeth?

This is my two cents’ worth. What do you think?

PS: I should mention that though I live in Canada, dental is not covered by our (ailing, politically besieged) social healthcare system.