Harvard University - New Policy Covers Transgender Health Options

[peggygee]

At Harvard’s behest, Blue Cross Blue Shield modified their University-specific policy on transgender services. Employee coverage went into effect on Jan. 1, and student coverage will begin on Aug. 1, 2010.

Blue Cross developed a policy outlining generic medical coverage criteria for both top and bottom surgeries. However, Harvard has decided to remove the exclusion only for top surgeries—that is, breast augmentation and mastectomies—for now, as the possibility of covering genital surgeries is still being investigated.

“One concern they have is with the lack of qualified local providers,” says Noah E. Lewis, staff attorney for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and a 2005 graduate of Harvard Law School. “Which, of course, is the result of insurance exclusions in the first place.”

Prior to the modification, Harvard subscribed to a standard plan from Blue Cross that specifically excluded “services and supplies that are related to sex change surgery or to the reversal of a sex change.”

According to Lewis, the UHS exclusion forced transgender people to pay the same insurance premiums as other members of the Harvard community, without receiving equal benefits in return.

“The exclusion for transgender services stuck out like a sore thumb,” he says. “If transgender health care were not explicitly singled out for exclusion, these services would be covered, as would any other medically necessary drug or surgery.”

or surgery.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/3/1...ical-insurance/


http://theipowa.org/?q=content/harvard-uni...nsgender-health

[ohiodick]

See this in the news, Cuba’s free sex changes mark break from past, Nation’s universal health care system covers controversial operation, damn socialists! Cigars and healthcare, no wonder the US hates them.

story

[peggygee]

Harvard joins the growing ranks of colleges and Universities that provide trans specific health care to it's students and or employess.

Institutions such as Emerson College; Emory University; Harvard University; New York University; Stanford; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, Irvine; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Riverside; the University of California, San Diego; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of Michigan; and the University of Washington.

Some colleges and universities cover just hormones under student health coverage: American University; Bridgewater State College; Cornell University; Harvard University; Ithaca College; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New York University; Ohio State University; Oregon State University; Penn State University; Princeton University; Stanford University; Suffolk University; the University of Oregon; the University of Vermont; the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Yale University. For specific information on the coverage provided, see http://www.uclgbtia.org/transhealth.html.

And I can't wait for the day when we see the HBCUs on this list.

I believe that the recent IRS ruling that gender reassignment surgery was eligible for tax deductions, and that firms like financial giant Goldman Sachs and others would cover GRS, and a more empathetic social climate have propelled Harvard and others to this decision.

http://theipowa.org/?q=content/irs-sued-ov...nge-deduction-0

http://theipowa.org/?q=content/glad-wins-c...ment-deductions

http://theipowa.org/?q=content/goldman-sachs-covers-grs