BU employee healthcare plan to cover gender reassignment surgery

Coverage of gender reassignment surgery is now available to faculty and staff who are insured by any of Boston University’s three healthcare plans.

“It is incredibly forward-thinking and smart for insurance to cover gender affirmation surgery,” said College of Arts and Sciences professor Elizabeth Boskey, a lecturer in BU’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. “People who are able to affirm their gender as they choose, whether that’s medically or not, are happier and mentally healthier and are also more productive employees.”

Boston-area schools Emerson College and Tufts University will also be offering employees with university healthcare plans similar coverage starting in 2014, according to a recent Boston Business Journal article.

BU spokesman Colin Riley said the addition of gender reassignment surgery coverage was one of several changes to BU’s medical insurance plan this year.

“The people who work in human resources in establishing the benefits [for employees] had discussions with the providers about what the additional cost would be actuarially, and ultimately decided to include it [gender reassignment surgery],” Riley said.

In offering this type of coverage, BU may be more likely to retain transgender employees, Boskey said.

“If you have really great employees who are transgender and are looking for a way to affirm their gender medically and they might be able to find employment someplace else that has an insurance who can provide it, then they might leave,” she said.

Offering employees insurance coverage for gender reassignment surgery also reflects positively on the university, Boskey said.

“BU is becoming seen as a university that is progressive about gender issues and accepting about gender issues,” she said. “…That’s going to pay off both in terms of the students who they can attract to the university and in terms of faculty who will want to come to a university that respects their gender identity and wants to support them in being who they are.”

This new development is one of many that have added to BU’s overall reputation as a tolerant institution, Boskey said. However, offering such medical coverage is only one part of BU’s recent push to improve the environment for transgender individuals.

“Being able to provide people medical coverage for the care that they need is certainly part of it,” she said. “But so is doing things that BU has already done with students, such as providing gender-neutral bathrooms and allowing people to identify as their gender, whether or not they have legally changed to match that identity.”

Boskey also said gender reassignment surgery may not meet all the needs of transgender individuals.

“Not all transgender and gender non-conforming individuals want to transition to the same degree,” Boskey said. “… For some people, that would be various forms of gender affirmation surgery, for others, it would be hormones, for others, it would be counseling so that they can be comfortable with who they are whatever their body looks like.”

Bridget Daley, a CAS sophomore, works for an insurance brokerage outside of Philadelphia called Superior Benefit Plans. She said in an email she is happy to hear BU is providing coverage of gender assignment surgeries for employees.

“All insurance companies and providers should cover these types of surgeries and I’m glad the BU insurance is going to,” she said. “These surgeries are very expensive and it’s not feasible for many people to get them without insurance covering the cost. Many people think that these surgeries are not a necessity, but in reality they are vital to the overall well-being of Trans individuals.”