SHAC could cover gender surgery costs

A board at Portland State has created a proposal that would add sexual reassignment surgery to the school’s optional extended health insurance plan, as well as increase areas of coverage for the basic plan.

The proposal, created by the Student Health Advisory Board, has been submitted to the Oregon University System for approval. OUS will evaluate the proposal, and if approved, it would go into effect in fall term.

The changes in the proposal would add more coverage in the basic plan for services such as counseling and mammograms. Students pay a mandatory fee each term to enroll in the basic plan, but may also choose to pay more to enroll in extended coverage.

In order to receive sex reassignment surgery under the proposed health care plan, patients must have a history of assuming the role of the opposite sex without interruption, take part in mental health evaluations and provide documentation from multiple doctors.

Student Health Advisory Board organizer Nick Walden Poublon said “prices are going to go down for every group.”

Poublon said the rates that were being charged by PSU’s current insurance provider, Combined Insurance, kept increasing, forcing the coverage in the plan to decrease in order to stay affordable. This school year, cost to enroll in the extended health insurance plan increased by more than 50 percent over last year.

The advisory board decided to put PSU’s health plan up for bid this year and the AETNA insurance company provided the best options and best price, Poublon said.

“We had a wish list and AETNA was able to meet that wish list,” Poublon said.

With the new plan, he said, there will be more benefits than before within the basic coverage that comes with enrollment. The basic plan will also be available to people who are taking five or more credits, as opposed to the current nine credit minimum.

The advisory board held a forum in February to gather student input on the health insurance proposal. Poublon said one of the challenges was answering the question, “How do you make the larger population pay for the smaller?”

PSU would be the first school among University of Oregon and Oregon State University to provide this coverage with its health insurance. Related procedures fall under the umbrella of coverage at the University of Michigan and the University of California system, for groups such as faculty, staff and graduate students.

“There will be a time when we look back and wonder why we even had to have this conversation,” Poublon said.

“It’s a big deal in a very personal way for people who identify transgender,” said Dylan Ritchey, educational coordinator at the Queer Resource Center.

Ritchey said he pays approximately $200 a month on hormone therapy prescriptions. The cost can be high for people who want or need the procedure–Ritchey said it can cost thousands of dollars.

“If it hadn’t been for Outside In, I wouldn’t have been able to transition,” he said.

Outside In is a Portland agency that provides social services to low-income individuals and is home to many services including a Transgender/Identity Resource Center. Ritchey said there is a six-month waiting list to enroll in that program.

Student Aaron Veal said he was concerned about the rise in tuition that would come from such a plan.

Other students say they are fine with the proposed changes.

“I’d be a supporter if they wanted it,” Kamaryn Whitfield said.