Franklin County joins a small but growing list of employers that provide coverage and support for gender-transition surgeries and other related treatments.
Roughly 5% of private companies and government entities in the country offer insurance coverage that includes gender reassignment surgery, according to data from the Society for Human Resources Management. In 2011, the figure was only 2%.
The county announced April 1 that it was offering coverage for the treatment of gender identity dysphoria after having changed its insurance plan with United Healthcare. The county will cover continuous hormone replacement, genital reassignment, and surgeries to change secondary sex characteristics, as well as counseling.
“We need to be in a position to be able to attract and retain the best and the brightest,” said Commissioner Marilyn Brown of Franklin County. “It would be discrimination if we didn’t do this.”
Other states have also opened up on the idea of transition-related care being covered by health insurance. Fifteen state departments of insurance have ruled that insurance plans cannot have exclusions for transition-related care, reported the Columbus Dispatch.
It’s not just a good idea. It’s the law,” said National Center for Transgender Equality director of policy Harper Jean Tobin. “I think it’s in some senses a work in progress particularly in states where regulators have not spoken.”
