U. employee health plan to cover gender reassignment surgery

The University’s employee health plan will now include coverage for gender reassignment surgery, effective July 1, University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said. Discussions about a similar change to the student health plan are still ongoing.

The decision was made on April 17 following an announcement in February that the University was “actively exploring the possibility” of offering benefits for the surgery, which is also referred to as gender confirmation surgery.

“Many of our peers are moving in this direction, and it seems to make sense for our population,” Michele Minter, the vice provost for institutional equity and diversity and chair of the transgender working group, said. “It seems like a very straightforward thing that would have minimal cost implications and have many potential benefits.”

Minter said there was little debate in the meetings regarding this policy change and that the decision was made unanimously.

Princeton now joins at least 36 institutions — including Yale, Harvard, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania — that already offer coverage for the procedure.

The University currently offers coverage for prescriptions for hormone therapy and mental health counseling and was one of the first universities to offer hormone coverage in employee and student health care plans.

That the student health plan was not also amended is a result of two separate committees reviewing the policies, one committee for employee benefits and one for student benefits, Minter said.

Mbugua said discussions regarding coverage in the student health plan are ongoing and an update on the progress of the policy is expected in the next several weeks.

“I think the University in general has a positive attitude toward it but just wants to do its due diligence,” Minter said, adding that the student health plan is surely getting very serious consideration. “The decision was made for employees because we thought it was the right thing to do.”

Director of the LGBT Center Debra Bazarsky says she thinks it is “wonderful” that this coverage is now available for employees.

“I think it's important to have coverage generally for people who are transitioning,” Bazarsky said. “It’s very costly to pay out of pocket for transition-related expenses, so it’s great to have the coverage for those in our community who need it.”

Pride Alliance co-president John Parvin ’16 said he applauds the University for providing this coverage to employees but is “confused” as to why it was not simultaneously extended to students.

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“Princeton’s administration has a wonderful opportunity here to voice their support and their acknowledgment of the trans student community by providing gender confirmation surgery within the insurance plan,” Parvin said. “They failed in that regard. They missed that opportunity, and honestly it’s a shame.”

Though happy with the new development, Princeton Equality Project president Tzu-Yung Huang ’15 would like to see the new benefits extended to all members of the Princeton community.

“Obviously I’m pleased with that progress — I’m not going to say, ‘No, the employees shouldn’t get those benefits’ — but I think I share the same opinion as John in that I don’t understand why the students don’t have those benefits or the students are not included,” Huang said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I’m happy to see that there’s a momentum going … I’m happy to see that the University is really open to making these changes.”