Starbucks Reveals New Health Care Plan That Promises to Cover All Trans Team Members

Starbucks is showing itself to be a friend of the LGBT community. Though the coffee giant has offered trans-inclusive health plans that include gender confirmation surgery since 2012, the new Starbucks trans health care plan has just been revealed. Now, employee insurance plans will also cover top surgery for trans men and women, as well as voice therapy and more.

The new Starbucks trans health care plan was created in partnership with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Starbucks is in fact the first company to work with the WPATH on a health plan.

Ron Crawford, Starbucks’s vice president of benefits said in a statement, “The approach was driven not just by the company’s desire to provide truly inclusive coverage, and by powerful conversations with transgender partners about how those benefits would allow them to truly be who they are.”

The new Starbucks trans health care plan will cover a number of procedures previously considered “cosmetic.” These include breast reduction or augmentation, hair removal or transplants and facial feminization surgery.

Jamison Green, the former president of WPATH worked with Starbucks on the new plan. Green said, “Starbucks was not afraid to ask all the right questions and demand that people get the best possible care. We produced a list of the most crucial benefits and those that are deemed problematic to insurance companies, such as facial feminization and electrolysis.”

Studies have shown that gender confirmation surgery improves trans people’s quality of life drastically. Approximately 75% of patients report having a better life after transitioning. Though even with how important gender confirmation surgery is, it’s the additional therapies that really help. Green described electrolysis as “a life-saving procedure for trans women.”

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Starbucks earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign‘s annual Corporate Equality Index. It was one of 609 companies out of 947 total to receive a perfect score.

What do you think about the new Starbucks trans health care plan?

Photos by Mike Kane courtesy Starbucks