Yup. Cuz I’m poor I have only the basic level of healthcare. I should add that this is essentially free and so it’s not an entirely bad system. But it’s effectively useless in many cases if you are poor.

How can someone be poor here? Well this can happen when you don’t fit squarely in the safety net. For example a friend of mine lived with her bf, but because it was social housing they made it extra small to motivate people to get out. But that also somehow made it legally too small for two people to live there. But because she is trans and poor she was essentially forced into that situation. So people often can’t be registered in the right places, which can impact your social stipend.

That’s why you are forced to pick the cheapest healthcare option, and that means your own risk will be about 1k euros a year. You have to pay that much for healthcare that year before you are covered 100%. It’s to demotivate overusing the system. Makes sense if you can afford it.

But what if you are genuinely poor? It’s common. Just imagine the levels of discomfort we go through. Imagine being a woman with facial hair and it makes you uncomfortable. How are you supposed to do anything like work? And all the stress causes mental health issues. It’s common to see in my community. People get panic attacks and everything.

And when against all odds you do go, and you pay all that somehow, you’ll likely be discriminated. There’s simply not enough training for psychologists here. From where I stand it’s absolutely reasonable that people use diy hrt, financially and emotionally. And you have to set that in perspective to the past, where that was the status quo. 😿