Employee Health Benefits

Click here for more info on trans health benefits covered by employee insurers
[Updated August 15, 2007]

As of July 1, 2005, UC’s employee insurers (with the exception of Western Health Advantage, which insures relatively few UC employees) began offering coverage of certain transgender-related surgical needs. While print materials regarding the coverage are not yet available, UC employees and their covered family members should feel free to call their insurer’s member services department with questions about the coverage, since the insurers indicate they have trained their customer services staff in this regard. Should they have additional questions, employees are encouraged to call the UCOP staff member who helped negotiate the coverage: Joan Manning, 510-987-0746. UC health insurers for employees also offer hormone therapy and psychological counseling.

Student Health Insurance

Student health insurance plans are dealt with campus-by-campus. USHIP and GSHIP are undergraduate and graduate student insurance plans respectively. Each UC campus negotiates these insurance plans on a sometimes annual basis, with a campus health advisory committee. Sometimes multiple campuses negotiate together.

More Info Coming Soon - 3 UC campuses now cover Sex Reassignment Surgeries under Student Health Insurance as of 2008

The University of Michigan Information:

At the University of Michigan, some trans health services including some surgeries are offered under student and employee plans. All of these plans will cover genital surgery, hysterectomy, HRT, mental health therapy, for patients who meet criteria under either the BCBSM/BCN internal guidelines or the Aetna guidelines (for the Chickering plan). Both student plans will also cover top surgery for FTM. Recently the BCBSM/BCN plans would not cover top surgery, but the status of this is not clear at this point in time. In addition, the BCBSM/BCN plans are structured to make it difficult to utilized providers who are not "in-network", and all plans reimburse in-network providers better than out-of-network ones.

UM Students:

• Chickering/Aetna student plan (as of September 2007) available to all students. (Up to $25,000 lifetime max coverage for GID diagnosis related expenses)
• GradCare (BCN Blue Care Network HMO Product) available to graduate student employees, as well as certain other graduate students under fellowship.
  (Both of these students plans will cover FTM top surgery.)

UM Employees:

• UM Premier Care (BCN Blue Care Network HMO Product)
• BCBS Michigan Community Blue PPO