Yale Students' Health Insurance to Cover Sex Change Surgeries?
Yale University is considering health insurance coverage that would fund sex change surgeries for its students.
Yale Health already currently provides limited coverage for "sex reassignment" surgery to eligible faculty as well as managerial and professional staff members. The Yale health care policy for sex reassignment surgery, which was issued in 2012, states that it provides limited coverage to eligible faculty members. To be eligible for the surgery coverage the policy says that certain criteria must be met to determine the medical appropriateness of the procedure.
"Yale Health follows the general standards of transgender health care as defined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)," the policy reads.
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The policy continues on to say, "Yale Health considers the WPATH standards of care to be recommendations rather than absolute rules for care. Criteria for undergoing hormonal or surgical treatments are considered minimum acceptable criteria."
Located in New Haven, Conn., Yale University has 5,993 male students and 5,913 female students currently enrolled. Yale Daily News, the student news publication, recently reported that the school is considering offering coverage to students for "gender reassignment surgery" because of an increased interest from some of its students. While some students are in favor of the coverage, a user identified "alum" on the publication's website commented, "um... so why should insurance pay for this?"
For females wanting to change to the male gender, some of the covered surgeries include mastectomy, hysterectomy, vaginectomy, and erectile prostheses. For males wanting to change to the female gender, some covered surgeries include penectomy, vaginoplasty, and labiaplasty.
Face-lifting, facial bone reduction, breast augmentation, hair removal, voice modification, which have been used in the feminization process, are considered cosmetic. Similarly, chin implants, and lip reduction, which have been used to assist in the masculinization process, are also considered cosmetic by the policy.
In stark contrast to its current liberal, secular agenda, Yale was founded by colonial clergymen and the school boasts of becoming the first in the U.S. to establish a church within a college in 1757. One of the founding documents for the school shares its mission stating, "Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State."
Yale professes that during its first two centuries it had graduates that influenced the spread of Christianity by serving as missionaries throughout the world. The school currently carries the motto of "Light and Truth," which first appeared on university diplomas in 1736. The Yale Trademark Licensing Program said this about its motto, "To embody Yale's progressive ideals, the Institution chose its Latin motto, which translates to 'Light and Truth.' The Institution felt that a proper education consisted of both the 'Light' of a liberal education and the 'Truth' of religious tradition."
