The Student Health Insurance Plan expanded in August to include more coverage for transgender students, but transgender senior Zak Mellen is “a little skeptical” about what that means.
Mellen, a Germanic studies major, has been utilizing the plan’s coverage of hormone therapy for about a year and wants to utilize the plan’s increased coverage for sexual reassignment surgery, specifically chest reconstruction surgery.
The plan states it will cover surgeries up to $100,000, but Mellen said that due to the vague language used, he is unclear on what kind of surgeries it will cover. And he’s been having trouble getting a definitive answer.
Mellen said a representative for United Healthcare told him the transgender coverage at this university includes genital surgeries, but he doesn’t know if that includes other surgeries, such as mastectomies and breast augmentations.
One of Mellen’s main concerns is that “cosmetic procedures” are listed as an exclusion of the university’s plan, and he’s unsure if chest reconstruction surgery is included in transgender coverage. The overall plan excludes breast reduction, breast augmentation, breast implants and breast prosthetic devices “except as specifically provided in the Benefits for Reconstructive Breast Surgery Following a Mastectomy,” according to a university insurance plan flier.
Additionally, while the United Healthcare representative told Mellen the university plan covers various genital surgeries, the flyer states that sexual reassignment surgery is not included “except as specifically provided in the policy.”
“It’s really vague because it depends on what definition you’re going by with any specific procedure, so I’m just trying to get an answer on what exactly they cover because there are a lot of different procedures that people might want to get,” he said.
Mellen said he has yet to receive a definitive answer from the University Health Center or the insurance company.
“At this point, I think I’m done talking to the health center. I think I’m just going to contact a couple surgeons and just see what the insurance says to them,” he said.
Deirdre A. Younger, the health center’s associate director, said this year’s plan, which became effective Aug. 1, covers psychotherapy for gender identity disorders and associated comorbid psychiatric diagnoses, continuous hormone replacement therapy, surgery to change specific secondary sex characteristics, lab testing for monitoring of hormone therapy and other related services.
Younger did not elaborate on which specific characteristics the surgery could include.
“We know that it’s something that our students have asked for in the past … and so, we just wanted to be responsive to some of the needs of our students,” she said of the plan’s expansion.
Although there might be some confusion about the language of the plan, Nicholas Sakurai, associate director of the LGBT Equity Center, said it was an important step for the university — one that many others have not taken yet.
“Maryland is still on the leading front here,” he said. “Among institutions in the region … and the kind and level of inclusive insurance that we’re now providing, I think this definitely puts us out front.”
In July, this state reversed its healthcare policy and became the third state to offer gender transition-related care under its employees’ insurance plans. Sakurai said coverage of transgender resources is something the plan needs to avoid discriminating.
But even the Trans Resources section on this university’s LGBT website noted the confusion in health center information.
“Many questions about the availability of and insurance coverage for hormone therapy and other health issues of particular concern to transgender people are not present,” the medical health care section of the LGBT website states.
