U. adds transgender insurance

In the next academic year, the Penn Student Insurance Plan will begin offering a new benefit for transgender students — it will cover the cost of the gender confirmation process, also known as gender reassignment or transition.

The benefit covers triadic treatment, the term used for the three-step process of gender confirmation. Triadic treatment consists of psychotherapy, estrogen or testosterone hormone treatment and sex reassignment surgery, which involves the changing of genitals.

The benefit covers the costs of surgery for up to $50,000. According to a research report by the organization Transgender At Work, the cost of male-to-female surgery can average around $20,000.

The initiative was introduced by the previous Lambda Alliance board, chaired by College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Dennie Zastrow.

“A problem with LGBT advocacy at Penn in the past had been that we overlooked the needs of transgender students,” Zastrow said.

According to the American Medical Association, a lack of proper treatment for transgender individuals can lead to “significant psychological distress, dysfunction, debilitating depression and for some patients without access to appropriate medical care and treatment, suicidality and death.”

Meeting their health-insurance needs was one way of ensuring the transgender community was looked after, Zastrow said.

Last semester, Zastrow brought the proposal before the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, a group consisting of undergraduate, graduate and professional students, as well as University administrators, that makes recommendations to the Office of the Provost regarding changes in student insurance.

After discussing the gender confirmation benefit, researching the costs and consulting with Aetna — Penn’s insurance provider — the Advisory Committee voted to recommend the “important” benefit to the president and provost, according to Engineering sophomore Shantenu Agarwal, a undergraduate representative on the Advisory Committee.

Last week, Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price gave the final approval for the Advisory Committee’s recommendations, thus finalizing the benefit’s inclusion in student insurance for next year.

The cost of the premium will likely only increase by a matter of cents, which is “very little for something so important for people who are transgender,” College junior and Lambda Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Jason Goodman said.

Because the PULSE survey, a questionnaire administered last year that gauged student climate on campus, did not publish data on the transgender community, it is hard to fully know the number of transgender students on campus, according to Goodman.

The transgender community’s lack of visibility “also has to do with the fact that if you’re a trans student, you want to live your life and not have to educate people,” Zastrow said. “But even if it impacts one person, all the advocacy efforts will have been worth it.”

Offering coverage for transgender students is “a necessary standard ... that brings us up to a level of parity” to other schools that already offer such benefits, Lambda Alliance Chairman and Wharton and Engineering sophomore Tyler Ernst said.

The next step, according to Ernst, would be to ensure that a similar benefit is added to the staff health insurance plan, which differs from that of students.

According to Penn’s Non-Discrimination Policy, the school does not discriminate on the basis of gender identity.

Without covering the transition process for transgender students, “we previously were [discriminating], and now we’re taking steps to rectify that,” Zastrow said.

Comments (34)

oh my god, finally gender confirmation is available with student insurance. i felt like we were all living in the dark ages.

you have to love the liberal newspeak of "gender confirmation." the term is simply preposterous. typically a "confirmation" does not require $20k to $50k worth of surgery, as i had believed that a confirmation was the reassurance of a fact through ideas or words. i suppose it can now be defined as changing someone's gender because of a psychosis now inexplicably accepted by trendy liberalism. at least cut the bs, call the spade a spade, and write the term "sex change" somewhere in the article.

it is so terrible that the university has "overlooked the needs" of the transgender community. i am actually transracial, and although i am, actually, deep down in the essence of my soul, black, i was sadly born white. i can not wait the university to stop being a reactionary organization and provide for the permanent blackface surgery a la Kirk Lazarus, i mean, race confirmation, that i require to finally be who i was obviously born to be.

It is a crime that the school would choose to cover a sex-change operation without taking into consideration other and equally pertinent sexual oddities. I for one am trans-species, I have a real and deep emotional, sexual, and physical connection to horses. I am a zoophile and despite my long face and graceful stallion like nature I too would like to roam the green pastures. Being a zoophile has left me an outcast in the Penn community especially the vet school (miss you Barbaro, green pastures forever). I do not understand how the crisis of sexual identity of a few trendy liberals is more important than my own misplaced sexual identity. I too suffer from physiological stress as a child knowing that I could never be one with Black Beauty almost drove me to suicide only to be save by a My Precious Little Pony playset my mother saved weeks to buy me. In all I wish for is Equine Equality for all.

Dr. Alain Lon Fasse Equine Enthusiast and Toastmaster

It's great to see Penn joining Harvard, Stanford, the University of California schools, etc., in removing outdated, discriminatory exclusions from their insurance policies.

Let's be clear, this is not "adding" a benefit but rather removing an outdated, discriminatory exclusion for standard medical care that should have been covered all along. It was only prejudice--on full display in the first two comments--that lead to explicit exclusions for sex reassignment surgery in the first place.

It's great to see that transgender people and qualified medical providers are being listened to rather than people who have no knowledge about the medical needs of transsexual individuals. Even the US government recognizes transgender health care as medically necessary--it is .

I think this is a great step forward in "our" community. By accepting medical insurance coverage, the transsexual community and the Penn community as a whole is finally acknowledging that these people have a psychological disease derived from a mental illness.

I'm glad that our tuition will now be devoted to curing these truly sick individuals.

The South will rise again

Applause to the advocates, administrators, and students who helped get rid of this discriminatory healthcare exclusion.

This makes a *huge* positive difference in the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming students, and costs so very little for those who were lucky enough to be born with gender identities that match their bodies. It's long past time universities started living up to their non-discrimination policies, and I'm just so glad this has happened.

Thanks for making U Penn a more inclusive campus!

I am glad to see Penn moving in a positive direction towards providing health care for all students, especially for members of the trans community, who are in great need of services, yet are often mishandled and mistreated.

Indeed, transsexual people have been erroneously labeled has having a mental illness. Thankfully, for the DSM-5, the proposed term is "gender incongruence"--more accurate than the outdated "gender identity disorder," which can give lay people the impression that there is something "wrong" with being transsexual. See: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=482

But since trans people don't belong in the DSM at all, medical providers are also developing a standard endocrine/medical classification to use instead of a psychological one. That is more accurate since talk therapy has never been successful in terms of forcing trans people to live as their sex assigned at birth.

For those who want it, hormones and SRS are the standard, appropriate health care for transsexual people. Trans people pay the same premiums as everyone else yet are denied access to the care that they need, so it's great that Penn is eliminating that unfair treatment.

I am one of the lucky ones who could afford to pay for surgery out-of-pocket. Insurance exclusions do not prevent people from accessing care, they just punish those with the least economic privilege.

PS I hear that the South rising again is important to you. Where I'm from, that is interpreted as racism, but I assume that you were not suggesting that Black people ought to be enslaved. I am just confused as to the relevance of that comment to this discussion.

I for one have a vested interest in this kind of insurance coverage. I was in front of the University Council just a few weeks ago lobbying for the Staff version of this plan.

I can see there are a lot of folks leaving comments here that don't fully understand what it means to be transsexual. I hope one day more people will understand what it means and the impact that being out-of-sync with your gender can do to you.

The suicide rate among transsexuals is incredibly high and the biggest reason for this is lack of money to fix their gender mismatch as well as being discriminated against. I experience gender dysphoria myself and can see how someone could be driven to take their own life. It can be pretty horrific.

Way to go Penn!

dana, i cetainly agree that transsexuals are pretty horrific.

noah, the fact that hard working moral americans have been paying insurance premiums to dig your hole or build your pole deeply disturbs me.

yay penn indeed!

Or is it just normal to be weirded out by transsexuals?

The South will rise again

April is Confederate History Month, honor the history of this great country as well as those who lost their lives in the War of Northern Aggression.

The South will rise again

Wolfgang, I can appreciate the fact that you are horrified and disturbed by the thought of someone altering their physical body to bring it into alignment with their brain sex. Since you are not transsexual, it is really understandable that you would feel that way since you clearly have no need or desire to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

But just as the thought of having breasts and a vagina is horrifying to you (I am assuming you are male), that is how it feels for a transsexual person to have a body that doesn't match their brain.

The personal medical decisions of trans people have no effect on you, so I do not understand why this issue bothers you. It's not about the money; covering these surgeries does not raise premiums.

Give me my money back! Are you serious?!

If you really deem transexual changing process a health emergency, why don't we insure the money to fix mo-money's legs! Why don't we actually cover people who have real medical emergencies up to "$50,000". I have a friend whose vocal chords have not been working properly for a year and it'll only cost a couple thousands dollars, but Penn will not cover my friend. Is fixing my friend's voice less important than having someone change his/her (or I suppose it) gender.

And even if it is an important medical procedure, why should it be covered by Penn students, why do you even seriously believe that a surgery will fix the psychological problem, and why is it worthy of a FULL insurance coverage? I am sure there are plenty of people who want plastic surgery and who are psychologically affected by their image, why don't we FULLY cover their plastic surgery? More importantly, why don't we fully cover everyone who has cholesterol problems, diabetes, obesity, high-blood pressure, cancer, or STDs. I am 100% confident all these issues are more important than a gender change.

This is beyond ridiculous. Penn is using my insurance premiums to cover something that is by no means the most important or the most urgent medical needs. You can have your transexual/gender change if you want, but not with my money. Thank you Penn for being overtly irrational, unfair, and fully biased towards a minority on campus. You are doing the health care bill that Congress passed a disservice by allocating our money to something that is not nearly as urgent.

Humans are a truly funny thing. If you don’t satisfy the needs of the selfish one, it’s as if no progress has been made.

Thank you UPenn for recognizing the needs of transgender individuals in our community. Sadly, it is a true disappointment to see representatives of Penn within our own student body, who so avidly refuse to step outside their own needs.

To the discriminatory posts on this article, I can only wonder what kinds of ludicrous liberalism you so thoroughly preached in your admissions essays. After all, isn’t everything political?

I assume that by offering free "gender-confirmation" coverage to trans-sexuals, Penn will be able to lure a higher fraction of the trans-sexuals within the admitted group and get them to matriculate.

If we can sign up no fewer than 15 transexual cross-admits who might otherwise have defected to Stanford or Harvard, then it will all be worth it. Penn will not have to resort to the waitlist to replace the potentially disaffected admits, and this alone may raise the yield rate by 1% - particularly if the number of early decision admits jumped as much as I think it did. (The admissions office has refused, thus far, to report the number of ED admits compared to last year.)

Before you know it, we'll be breathing down Yale's neck!

I'm proud to be associated with a university that recognizes the importance of protecting the health of all its students, including transgender students. Those who post their disagreements to this policy are welcome to do so, but the insults and jokes are immature and embarassing. Let's strive for a university setting in which we can engage in civil discourse about important issues - and not act as though we're in the audience of Jerry Springer. Darren Rosenblum C'91, L'95

I'm so thrilled to hear this - although the cap seems arbitrary and unnecessary. Overall, however, it's a long overdue move, and one that represents a huge step forward for basic equality at Penn. I'd love to hear more about the process behind the scenes, and what exactly is included (top surgery and bottom surgery? FFS?).

Great job Penn, and ignore the transphobic comments! The bottom line is that, at virtually no cost, a huge inequality has been rectified and a few trans and gender non-conforming students will be able to be more comfortable in their bodies. A win-win situation.

Virtually no cost? How about the 50k in costs needed to cover an elective procedure to, and I quote Wolfgang, "to dig your hole or build your pole."

Transphobic? Is that a word? This isn't about equal rights, this isn't about bigotry. Political correctness doesn't help anyone. This is about how a certain subpopulation wants the rest of the community to pay for their lifestyles. If they want to have this nonsense covered by insurance, let them check a box on their insurance application and pay higher premiums. If not we clearly face an issue of moral hazard, with Penn students flip-flopping between sexes at a whim.

Win-win situation? Not for America.

- Robert E. Lee

Darreny1, first of all, these procedures have nothing to do with the "health" of the students, it has to do with people CHOOSING to have this procedure. Insurance should cover things that need to be done or else the person will be in danger. There is no danger here. EVA: its at no cost until somebody actually gets the procedure. Which I am sure will happen at some point, because, hey free sex change, and thats what it is a sex change not a "confirmation". And all of these comments against this are not hateful, they are just pissed off people who cannot understand why the hell the school would approve such an expensive and 100% VOLUNTARY procedure for people who have a "disease" and feel as if they should not be what gender they were "assigned". are you kidding me? that is a joke. and Not having this procedure covered previously is in no way "discrimination" as some of you idiots have pointed out. All the time these idiotic liberals take the stance that everything is personal and discriminatory. IT ISN'T. It is just not supporting a ridiculous procedure that somebody should only get if they have the money. Nobody is saying that this procedure should never happen, but other people should not have to pay for it because it is in no way a health risk. It is absolutely idiotic and pathetic that anyone would this this is necessary in any way

To add on, if they allow this because people say that transgender student may suffer depression and mental illness, then why doesn't penn insurance just cover anyone who is unhappy with their appearance. Cosmetic surgery for the person who is really depressed that they have a huge nose. Or some girl who wants bigger tits because she think they will make her prettier. Maybe in her mind she was meant to have big ones and is really depressed that she doesn't. When is it going to stop, if somebody is mentally ill treat them mentally unless they can pay for some other procedure

Thank God for this new coverage -- go Penn! This is such good news for students who really need coverage. It's difficult enough to be transgender without having to somehow find giant gobs of cash before undergoing the very procedures that, for many, make life and employment so much easier. Do employee and faculty health plans cover gender reassignment as well?

If one thing's certain, it's that you can always find people indignantly blabbering on about something of which they know virtually nothing.

Transsexed people are not mentally ill or engaging in a cosmetic procedure. (N.B. Transsexuality should not be confused or conflated with "cross-dressing"; they are distinct.) Transsexed people are thought to have a birth "defect" where the brain and body don't develop in conjunction with one another. This is why one may feel like a man but have a female body or feel like a woman with a male body; the brain is thought to be wired differently than the appearance of the body. For most people with this experience, there have been feelings of something being "off" since a young age. That said, how would being born a biological variation fall into the realm of "choice", folks? It's like any other anomaly. Would you admonish the needs of someone who sought treatment for a cleft palate? Or a congenital heart defect? Of course not. Transsexed people have their own medical needs, like everyone else.

That people seem so resentful and hateful of people seeking treatment for this condition reveals more about their own personal issues than anything else. To attempt to humiliate and degrade other people who face a disparity between brain and body is really quite pathetic -- not that I'd feel terribly insulted by people who make laughably bad analogies between transsexuality and zoophilia, or sign their post "The South Will Rise Again" and "Robert E. Lee". (Seriously??) Clearly, we're not dealing with the best and brightest here.

Thank you, University of Pennsylvania, for demonstrating your intelligence, good judgment, and compassion for the varied struggles your students face.

It's ok people, [SPOILER ALERT] General Lee loses the (culture) war.