I came across the news that more US Corporations are now offer transgender-inclusive health benefits.
Excerpt from that news item:
"The Human Rights Campaign said in a report to be published Thursday that 207 of the 636 businesses it surveyed for its annual Corporate Equality Index either are already providing transgender- inclusive employee health benefits or plan to at the start of the new year."
Of course, the definition of "benefit" would vary from company to company and health insurance plans, but the very fact that the number of companies participating every year is going up only points to a positive trend in meeting the needs of transgender employees working at these companies. Way to go!
I dug a little deeper into the report and found that there is more than 400% increase from 2009 to 2012 in the number of companies offering transgender inclusive health care coverage (49 companies in 2009 and 207 companies in 2012)
Page 29 of the report lists the companies at least one transgender inclusive health coverage plan. The report in it's entirety can be viewed and downloaded here:
The report covers more than just transgender benefits but since this is closest to my heart, I decided to zero in on it in this post.
I remember participating in a support group meeting about a month ago on TDOR (Transgender day of remembrance) and an older trans-man recollecting how all the resources which we take for granted today for trans folks did not exist when he was growing up. I am sure he could have never imagined a time when mainstream corporations would actually cover transgender individuals in their health plans!
I know the road to trans struggle is long and arduous but news like these lift the clouds for a bit and you can actually see the sun lighting up the path and who knows, there may even be a rainbow at the end of the road :)
(PS: The news item that triggered this train of thought is from Huffington Post:
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