With college campuses prioritizing LGBTQIA+ services, student health insurance plans are called to provide coverage that meets this need.
5.1% of adults younger than 30 and 2.3% of all U.S. adults identify as transgender, nonbinary, or gender expansive,1 which means that providing care that meets the needs of all students is of utmost importance.
Depending on the health plan and college campus, gender affirmation care is covered differently. Wellfleet focuses on providing coverage options that meet the ever-adapting needs of the LGBTQIA+ community.
In this blog, learn how Wellfleet surpasses standard coverage for gender-affirming care for LGBTQIA+ students.
Wellfleet’s inclusive approach to care
Wellfleet places a strong focus on inclusivity of care across all student sub-populations.
Our team continuously evaluates its benefits and formulary coverage to find ways to improve care for all students.
One important area of continual change is gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care can include a variety of medical and behavioral health services, including:
- Behavioral therapy
- Hormonal therapy
- Surgical treatment
- Care management
New standards of care often emerge as the medical community collects more data about how best to care for the LGBTQIA+ population.
Learn 3 ways to enhance behavioral healthcare for LGBTQIA+ students on your campus.
Coverage of gender-affirming care
The Wellfleet team works hard to stay ahead of the curve and provide the best care possible for our students.
Wellfleet’s coverage of gender-affirming care has evolved, the most recent changes taking effect in July 2024. With these changes, we will transition from offering two different tiers of coverage to offering one coverage option that includes comprehensive coverage of gender-affirming care services, including:
- Medical and behavioral health appointments
- Hormonal therapy
- Tracheal shave
- Cosmetic procedures, such as chemical peel and electrolysis
- Top and bottom surgery
- Facial recontouring
How Wellfleet goes further with LGBTQIA+ coverage
Wellfleet has continued to stay at the forefront of gender-affirming care. When determining our most recent coverage updates for gender-affirming care, our Clinical team completed a thorough review of medical literature in addition to WPATH 8 guidelines.2
Wellfleet determined that the frequency of literature updates does not always keep pace with the needs of the LGBTQIA+ students, applicable medical practices, and terminology. This has been increasingly evident with non-binary, gender non-conforming, and gender-diverse students.
We decided that our coverage changes, effective in July 2024, need to be fully supportive of gender non-specific procedures. Our expanded coverage for medically necessary facial recontouring and cosmetic procedures, agnostic to whether those procedures aim to feminize, masculinize, or non-conform to a gender, show our continued effort for equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Discover 8 ways to help create a more inclusive campus for LGBTQIA+ students.
Our student health insurance plans surpass the standard coverage provided under many insurance plans. This includes facial recontouring procedures that meet the needs of the non-binary and gender non-conforming student population and shows a commitment to meeting the diverse health and well-being needs of students.
Why choose Wellfleet for inclusive care coverage?
Because Wellfleet Student health insurance plans are built specifically for students, we focus on meeting the unique needs of the young adult population.
Most health plans are built for the commercial health market, and often, their coverage centers around adults and seniors — that is because the chance of having a chronic condition increases with age.3 This leaves many health plans to focus on reducing costs for chronic conditions like COPD, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancer.
However, many of these conditions do not align with the needs of the student population. Students need a different kind of care, and that’s why we focus on optimizing coverage for the health needs unique to the student population, including:
- Depression and anxiety
- Asthma
- Acne and other skin conditions
- Infections
- Athletic injuries
- Reproductive care
- Autoimmune conditions
Wellfleet Student aims to lead the way in inclusive healthcare coverage. Amid the ever-changing student health landscape, Wellfleet is committed to ensuring our policies reflect the best possible coverage for students.
Learn more about Wellfleet Student
Now that you know more about Wellfleet’s approach to inclusive care, contact our sales team to learn more about creating a health plan built for your students.
References
1 Brown, A. (2022, June 7). About 5% of young adults in the U.S. say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/06/07/about-5-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-say-their-gender-is-different-from-their-sex-assigned-at-birth/.
2 Coleman, E. Radix, A.E., Bouman, W.P., et al. (2022, September 15). Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8, International Journal of Transgender Health. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644.
3 Ansah, J, and Chi-Tsun, C. (2022). Projecting the chronic disease burden among the adult population in the United States using a multi-state population model. Front Public Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9881650/.
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