On the eve of the Montreal Pride festival, The Press looked at recent initiatives offered to the trans community by financial institutions. A first insurer now offers to cover from its group insurance the costs related to a sex change that are not covered by the public plan and a first bank allows its trans customers to change their name on their credit card. Overview.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Since last April, Beneva has offered a new gender affirmation clause for policyholders of its group insurance plan.
This clause was created to help trans members cover the costs of a gender affirmation operation when it is not covered by the public plan of the province or territory where they reside, explains Éric Trudel, executive vice-president and group insurance leader at Beneva.
In Quebec, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) reimburses the costs related to sex change operations such as vaginoplasty (creation of a female sex) and phalloplasty (creation of a male sex).
However, trans people have to pay thousands of dollars for procedures related to aesthetic transformation (breast augmentation, facial feminization, Adam’s apple reduction, etc.), as these are not reimbursed by the plan. Quebec public.
A requested product, according to Beneva
“Several employers are working on their diversity and inclusion policy and they want to be able to support trans people,” says Éric Trudel.
The insurer began working on the development of this clause when a large group of policyholders in Ontario requested it in 2021. However, the latter has not yet integrated it into its group plan.
Beneva is the first Quebec insurer to have launched such a clause. In Canada, the insurer Sun Life announced a similar clause in 2019, followed by Medavie Blue Cross and Green Shield Canada in 2021.
“We officially launched the clause on 1er April 2022. One of our largest groups in Quebec, from the public health sector, added it to its group plan, which has approximately 100,000 members,” says Mr. Trudel.
For the moment, only this group has integrated the clause, but various lessees are in the process of analyzing the possibility of doing so, he confirms.
According to Mr. Trudel, the clause would cost an employer between $5 and $10 per employee, per year.
“The policyholder has the choice between two coverage maximums: one is a lifetime maximum (for life), and the other an annual maximum, can we read on the Insurance Portal, an information window for insurance professionals. […] It allows the policyholder to choose in $10,000 increments the amount of coverage they wish to offer their employees. The maximum lifetime amount he can choose is $50,000 per insured.
“The annual maximum is optional. The policyholder who opts for this avenue can choose an annual maximum of $5,000 or $10,000 per insured. »
To be eligible, the insured must have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which is when a person experiences distress over a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity.
This new clause is offered to groups of more than 500 members only. Éric Trudel points out that Beneva wishes to extend this offer to other groups in the near future.
He adds that the implementation of the clause is too recent to release his actual consumption statistics. “We can do it from the end of the summer,” he says.
According to the latest Statistics Canada census (2021), the country has more than 100,000 transgender and non-binary people, which represents 0.33% of the working population.
Éric Trudel explains that this factor served as a basis for Beneva in the pricing of the clause. Other parameters such as the variable cost of the operations covered, the different provincial health coverages and the long-term staggering of the use of the clause were also considered.
A credit card for trans and non-binary people
In March 2022, BMO Financial Group became the first financial institution in the country to implement Mastercard’s Real Name feature, allowing transgender and non-binary people to use the name of their choice on all BMO consumer credit cards. and for small businesses, without having to make an official name change.
BMO’s US subsidiary, BMO Harris Bank, had partnered with Mastercard in 2019 to issue the new card in the United States.
“Currently, cardholders with the Real Name feature are in 30 markets [dans] the European Union, the United States, Canada and Latin America,” Mastercard Canada’s communications department tells us.
However, it was not possible to know how many Canadian individuals have requested the Real Name feature since its launch.
BMO transgender customers can now call the number on the back of their credit card or visit a branch to request a replacement card.
“For members of transgender and non-binary communities in particular, the identity printed on their cards may not reflect who they really are and can be a source of discomfort, distorting their true identity,” said Sasha Krstic, President of Mastercard Canada, during the Canadian launch of Vrai Nom.
Reaction from a trans rights organization
“It’s super interesting to see progress like this, but there are still a few caveats to point out,” comments Florence Gallant-Chenel, assistant coordinator at TransEstrie. “At the level of the insurance criteria, we ask for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. However, it has been several decades since we no longer asked for such a diagnosis to have access to gender affirmation care in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada,” she says.
Mme Gallant-Chenel attributes this criterion to a lack of information on the part of Beneva, although she recognizes a good intention to leave. “To get access to gender-affirming surgery, it takes two letters from medical professionals. These letters do not pose a diagnosis, but demonstrate that the health professional has taken the time to validate the person’s thinking and journey. Only the person concerned can self-identify as trans, she insists.
She adds that she has nothing negative to say about the name change on BMO credit cards, but regrets that this kind of inclusion initiative comes from a single banking institution, not from the government, which could extend its scope.
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- Total number of gender reassignment operations in Quebec for the period from 1er April 2021 to May 31, 2022. Total cost: $7,103,078
source: Ministry of Health and Social Services