Beginning in 2014, the employee health plan will offer coverage for gender reassignment surgery, up to a maximum of $50,000.
The administration announced the change to faculty and employees last month. Duke added gender reassignment surgery coverage to the student health plan in April, following a resolution passed unanimously by Duke Student Government urging the administration to make the change for students and employees.
Vice President of Administration Kyle Cavanaugh noted that the administration goes through an annual process of assessing health benefits, ensuring they are compliant with the Affordable Care Act and are nationally competitive compared to other institutions.
“We go through analysis on how to work plans compared to peers we compete with,” he said. “We find that we are in a very positive position in 2014 in that we are going to offer a comprehensive and affordable health care plan for faculty and families.”
Currently 20 colleges and universities in the United States cover gender reassignment surgeries for employees, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.
“It’s a huge step forward,” said senior Jacob Tobia, DSG vice president of equity outreach and communications chair of campus LGBTQ group Blue Devils United. “The university added this benefit so that transgender employees can have access to the health care that they need.”
He added that the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health all declared in 2006 that unlike any cosmetic procedure or plastic surgery, gender reassignment surgery is medically necessary for the health of transgender people.
“[The coverage] would make Duke more competitive when recruiting faculty and staff,” said Sara-Jane Raines, co-chair of the Duke LGBT Task Force.
She noted that the task force has been working on health benefits for transgender individuals with the administration, doing research and making policy recommendations for the past few years.
“[The new change] goes along with Duke’s commitment to diversity,” she noted.
Tobia said that the coverage shows current transgender employees that the university values them as members of the community. The change will not make it immediately easier to be a transgender staff member, but it is part of the process by which the University takes a stand on the issue, he noted.
“I have met transgender employees at Duke who are going through these procedures at the current moment,” he said. “The ability to ensure that they have all the options available to them that they need for their health says a great deal about how our community cares for them.”
The change will have virtually no impact on the cost of the plan, Cavanaugh added.
Tobia envisioned the decision to cover gender reassignment surgeries for employees as the start of greater changes.
“I hope that the North Carolina General Assembly takes note of our decision and that on a state level people can learn something from it,” he said. “Other corporations that haven’t done the same need to think strategically about potentially where their priorities lie.”
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