By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer
On July 16, the Graduate Student Society (GSS), in a joint Instagram post with the SFU Queer Collective, announced that per-procedure caps were being removed from gender-affirming healthcare benefits. These caps previously set a $5,000 limit on how much coverage students can receive from their health plan for a single procedure. Additionally, the GSS noted that the lifetime maximum has increased from $10,000 to $50,000, and has “expanded eligibility” to not only to those diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but also those with gender incongruence. Gender incongruence describes wherein someone’s gender is different from their assigned sex, while gender dysphoria describes the unease people may feel when they have gender incongruence. These changes will impact not only graduates at SFU but also any student enrolled in a Canadian university that has a student health plan through GreenShield.
“The changes [in coverage] are the direct result of organizing led by trans and queer students who have been advocating for the removal of the per-procedure caps for a while now,” said the GSS Executive Committee in a statement to The Peak. They highlighted the importance of open letters, but said that it only provides the public a “snapshot of a broader picture of organizing and advocacy.” The GSS shared, “We want to honour and emphasize the significant amount of emotional, physical, and intellectual work that the trans community put into making a positive change in our healthcare benefit plan.”
On June 16, the SFU Queer Collective, SFU Faculty Association, SFU Trans Equity Pod, Administrative and Professional Staff Association, and union CUPE 3338, released an open letter calling for more comprehensive gender-affirming healthcare coverage.
“This kind of advocacy shows how important it is to centre the material, basic needs for Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary people to have health, welfare, and dignity, and safety, and be included in their communities”
— Clio Lake, outgoing chair of the SFU Queer Collective
The Peak reached out to Clio Lake, the outgoing advocacy chair of the SFU Queer Collective with a masters in public health. They said that the letter was “community-driven” which showed “the significant allyship from the bargaining units, from the employee groups, and from community leaders.” Lake noted, “This kind of advocacy shows how important it is to centre the material, basic needs for Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary people to have health, welfare, and dignity, and safety, and be included in their communities.”
Lake said the groups have thus far received no response from the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS), however noted that the aforementioned changes would be relevant for undergraduate students as their health insurance was being carried under the Pacific Blue Cross and GreenShield medical programs.
The open letter from the advocating groups called upon the university to “create a comprehensive funding mechanism for all staff and faculty health benefit plans across bargaining units, to ensure lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare is never out of reach for our community members.”
The open letter had called upon the SFSS and GSS to create a “comprehensive funding mechanism for gender-affirming procedures to be covered by the Alumo plan and reserve funds without exclusions, removing coverage-stigmatizing per procedure caps.”
The groups said that the SFSS and GSS had signed a student healthcare agreement last year which included procedure caps on funding, which they shared were “despondently below what’s needed to cover acutely needed and difficult to access interventions.” These interventions refer to gender-affirming medical procedures or treatments.
GreenShield, the gender affirmation healthcare provider for SFSS and GSS, covers foundation procedures, such as eligible “chest/breast surgeries,” and focused procedures, such as “hair transplants/implants.” The cost of many of these interventions are high. For example, full body laser hair removal can cost upwards of $1,300. Body contouring ranges from $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the size of the area. Hormone treatment can cost as little as $9–30 per month for injections, but some individuals may opt for more expensive options that range from $150–170 per month, due to preference or side effects.
The groups stated that university employees “remain dangerously underinsured by employee benefit plans, which exclude the amount of coverage necessary to fund these critical interventions.” They called on SFU to match the rate of coverage offered at alternative institutions such as UBC, which offers $50,000 lifetime maximum levels of coverage.
The open letter highlighted the importance of proper coverage to “keep trans people safe from gender-based violence, sexualized violence, and suicidality, reduce impacts of anti-trans discrimination in education, housing, and jobs, and support the well-being and mental health of trans people.”
Lake said the change was a “big win” and the amount of coverage trans individuals could receive was “groundbreaking, life-changing,” and “life-saving.” Noting the reaction in the community, they said, “There’s been a lot of celebration and a lot of gratitude for the folks who’ve been involved in advocating, the folks who’ve been carrying that advocacy through to the insurer.”
They also noted the change was relevant for alumni who had recently graduated from their respective programs, with individuals having access to benefits until August 31. Lake shared, “There’s yet to be a formal announcement from either Greenshield or Studentcare/Alumo about this benefit change, but we expect that the membership will be informed widely,” come September.
Lake shared, however, that staff were only covered under the Pacific Blue Cross program for extended health and dental and “now have worse gender affirming benefits than students at the university.” They said, “From what we’re aware of, staff and faculty have access to $10,000 of [lifetime] coverage, which is really insufficient to provide coverage for some of the really costly, inaccessible, and medically necessary procedures that are excluded by public health insurance.” Lake encouraged staff and faculty impacted by the coverage to get “engaged in this process” of advocating for more comprehensive benefits.
