Beginning this summer, University of Pennsylvania’s employee healthcare plan will cover gender-reassignment surgery for transgender individuals.
The new coverage, offered under the Aetna Point of Service II plan, was announced last week and will go into effect July 1.
Penn joins just a handful of other American universities that offer this option to employees.
The university currently has more than 16,000 faculty and staff members.
Penn has offered similar coverage to students who take advantage of its student healthcare plan for two years. Efforts were underway last year to extend the benefits to employees, but the university at the time said the change would be too costly.
The university did not respond by presstime to a request for comment.
Jason Landau Goodman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition and a Penn student, noted the policy change “says a great deal about our community that we were able to push forward and extend this essential coverage.”
Landau Goodman, the former vice chair for political affairs at Lambda Alliance, previously testified before the University Council in favor of extending the benefit to faculty and staff.
“It took a long time to process this within the university but I’m very proud that finally, after several years of advocating for this, they came through to add this to the plan,” he said. “This is an important step for our community, and I hope that other schools and institutions will follow.”
Dawn Munro, a transgender scientist employed by the university for more than 20 years, was involved in the advocacy process for the change for a number of years.
She said an array of individuals — from faculty and staff, students and leaders across the city — were involved in pushing for this change, which represents that the university is “very forward-thinking.”
“They’re keeping the best interests of the faculty, staff and students at the top of their agenda,” she said. “This is a very positive change.”
Dana Lane Taylor, another trans employee who works in the Office of Information Security, testified before the University Council in 2010 to lobby for the benefits change.
After the university failed to adopt the policy at that time, she said supporters “kicked it into high gear.”
“I was actually overwhelmed by the support we received, especially from Penn students,” she said. “If it wasn’t for the support of these amazing people, we might not have gotten this approved this year.”
Taylor noted that this decision comes just months after Harvard made a similar move — examples that she said can fuel change on other campuses.
“When something like this comes up for discussion, the first question is, ‘What are our peers doing?’” she said. “Now that two Ivy League universities offer this, we hope that our peers will offer the same for their students, faculty and staff.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].
