Insurance Companies are moving quicker on change, but it still takes time and money.
I was on a zoom meeting with one of the clients insured with Sun Life Financial. They were talking about their new policies on Gender Diversity.
Have you been curious on how Insurance Companies are dealing with this? This article is speaking to Employee Benefits only. Information on Individual Life, Critical Illness or Disability insurance is not an area I have researched yet.
Where some of the complication arises is that once someone makes the transition, or is neutral, fluid or non-binary, they normally do not identify with the gender they were born with.
One question I had was how are they pricing for this? They are combining the price of a Male and Female and splitting the difference.
At this time, this is how Sun Life is handling Gender Diversity in their Employee Benefit products:
- Sun Life requires either a Male or Female gender type to be assigned;
- Members can self-identify on the enrolment form as Male or Female. It does not have to correspond to their biological sex assigned at birth. I do understand that this doesn’t work for people who are neutral, fluid or non-binary. Sun Life is trying and it does take time for Insurance Companies to make the full transition. There are actuarial reports, computer programs, contract wordings, booklets, etc that need to be changed.
- Please note, this is an add on and it is up to the Employer if they wish to include these benefits. Sun Life is the first carrier to offer a Gender Affirmation product to support members with all stages of their transition:
- Core Coverage: coverage for a selection of basic surgical procedures, available in some provinces, but not covered under the individual’s provincial or territorial health care plan. Examples include the reduction of the Adam’s apple and voice surgery.
- Enhanced Coverage: additional coverage for surgical procedures to align feminine or masculine features to the transitioned gender, such as, facial bone reduction or cheek augmentation. To add Enhanced coverage to a plan, you must also add Core coverage.
I do believe that there are other Insurance Companies that offer Gender Diversity options. These are previous Blogs I have done on Gender Diversity:
- https://gisbc.ca/are-insurance-companies-looking-at-gender-transitioning-coverage/
- https://gisbc.ca/have-you-heard/
If you are looking for a review of the coverage available on your Employee Benefit Program, please contact Glendinning Insurance Services at (250) 764-0142.
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