How I Did It: Winning More Insurance Coverage for Queer Workers
Name: Anonymous!
Pronouns: she/they
One of your favorite nonprofits that everyone should give to: Callen-Lorde
ReproJobs: You recently emailed us to share a victory at your repro organization -- gaining more insurance coverage for LGBTQ+ employees. Tell us how your team got started on that effort. How did you realize there were gaps in care? What did you decide to do about it?
Anonymous Repro Worker: There is small group made up of people across departments that is dedicated to building an inclusive and equitable work environment for queer staff and to work towards a culture where LGBTQ people are thoughtfully considered as subjects, consumers, users and beneficiaries of our initiatives.
As a group we began to have discussions on how we could work with HR to put policies in place to show queer employees our workplace is welcoming and intentional about supporting and affirming needs and life experiences—part of this effort was health insurance benefits.
Having worked in an intentionally inclusive space before, my former job did cover gender affirmation care: including hormone therapy, gender affirmation surgery, electrolysis, behavioral health services needed to obtain letters for surgery as well as PrEP and PEP under a 100% employer-covered plan with no copays. (Thanks Union!)
We then made a plan to review our benefits and get clarification on what was covered or not. During this process, we learned that our plan did not cover hormone therapy, gender affirmation surgery or electrolysis which are treatments for gender dysphoria. We also learned in this process that the state our organization is based in legally mandates insurance coverage for medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria.
ReproJobs: How did management/HR react to your advocacy efforts? How did you present your findings to them?
Anonymous Repro Worker: We were able to eventually have a meeting with HR and leadership to present our findings which included a short presentation with a table laying out our findings. Since what we were asking for was a change to the insurance plan, they let us know this happened on an annual basis but would put it on the table for review in the next insurance update.
We had brief email interactions over a few months, with HR sending our document back saying some services like HRT, surgery and electrolysis were covered. When we asked what the effective dates were, they pointed back to the legislative dates of the legal mandates and added that some staff had previously “inquired” about these benefits previously.
ReproJobs: How did you organize LGBTQ+ employees in the first place? If other workers wanted to do that at their repro jobs, how would you suggest they start?
Anonymous Repro Worker: I think we were lucky in that there was a structure in place for this kind of organizing. Our organization has other cross-departmental groups that work towards other causes, while this group was newer, we had space for it.
For others who may not have this in place, I would suggest finding people who care about the same things you do. Share with each other former experiences or what you know exists out there. Think about what other orgs are doing. How are they supporting their staff? That’s how it came up for me-drawing on my previous experience and knowing this is something that employers can support their people in: health care!
ReproJobs: Why is it important for employees to organize together, for healthcare or other workplace issues? What lessons have you learned that you might pass on to other repro workers looking to make change at their organizations?
Anonymous Repro Worker: It’s important to organize together because different people have different expertise. Our group consists of employees from all levels, from assistants to directors. In terms of strategy, some people may carry more weight when it comes to lobbying higher-ups.
ReproJobs: What’s next in terms of organizing for supporting LGBTQ+ employees?
Anonymous Repro Worker: During this process, we also advocated for LGBTQ reproductive/family building coverage. It’s pretty standard for insurance plans to cover infertility care, but infertility is defined by most insurances as not being able to conceive after a year of opposite-sex couples trying. Hello! That’s not an inclusive definition. We are a repro org and not supporting people in their reproductive autonomy.
Although this was a part of our presentation, we ultimately didn’t get the coverage included. We want queer folks to be able to build families without the higher price tag of paying out of pocket for assisted reproductive technology that straight people get after their infertility diagnosis. Surrogacy, IUI, IVF is all so expensive. Queer people should not have to bear the financial burden just because they have a dream of parenthood.
ReproJobs: What have you learned about yourself through your work?
Anonymous Repro Worker: I’ve learned that it’s okay to not have been in the repro field for my entire career. My previous work (and life) experiences are still valuable and inform my work. After all, it was having that previous work experience that led me to advocating for this inclusive workplace policy.
ReproJobs: If you could banish one thing in workplaces, what would it be?
Anonymous Repro Worker: White supremacy being disguised as and upheld by Black women and women of color at the executive level.
ReproJobs: What podcast are you into right now?
Anonymous Repro Worker: Bottom Lines Top Dollars! It’s a finance podcast by two queer anti-capitalists.