Aetna Again Accused Of Anti-Trans Discrimination Despite Perfect HRC Score

Insurance company refused to pay for Texas woman’s medically necessary procedure.

A transgender woman in Texas is suing Aetna for alleged anti-trans discrimination, based on the insurance company’s refusal to cover a procedure that her doctors deemed medically necessary. 

It marks the second complaint this year alleging anti-trans discrimination by Aetna. Nevertheless, the company received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2016 Corporate Equality Index, released last week. 

Charlize Baker, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 16 alleging that Aetna refused to pay for her breast augmentation surgery, and wouldn’t cover short-term disability related to the procedure. 

“Defendant Aetna’s policy is abhorrent, insupportable by any legitimate source in the medical community, completely contrary to globally accepted standard[s] of care for the treatment of Gender Dysphoria, arbitrary … and clearly motivated by intentional and/or maliciously ignorant desire to deny benefits to its plan enrollees on the basis of gender and gender identity,” Baker’s complaint states. 

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, is among the first to invoke a provision of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity among federal contractors. The lawsuit also alleges that Aetna is in violation of Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on gender, as well as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. 

Baker’s Aetna policy covers hormone therapy and genital reconstructive surgery for both trans men and trans women, in addition to mastectomies for trans men. However, the policy doesn’t cover breast augmentation for trans women, because Aetna considers the procedure to be “cosmetic.” 

“It’s an essential part of my outward expression of being female,” Baker told CBS Dallas/Fort Worth. “I felt very demeaned and demoralized. … I don’t understand what the discrepancy is, why would you cover one and not the other?”

Baker’s employer, military contractor L-3 Communications Corp., is also named in the lawsuit. However, Baker says L-3 has been supportive since she transitioned in 2011. Neither L-3 nor Aetna has commented on Baker’s lawsuit. 

“I think there’s a greater cause here. It’s not just about me, it’s about everyone,” Baker said. “All we’re asking for is a little dignity.”

In July, a transgender woman in Colorado accused Aetna of refusing to cover her gender reassignment surgery. The woman’s complaint was based on Colorado law prohibiting anti-trans discrimination in insurance coverage. 

On its website, Connecticut based Aetna boasts that it’s the only company in its industry that has received a perfect score on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index every year since the CEI was created. 

“Aetna has long been committed to its LGBT employees and the greater LGBT community,” the company states. “In early 2009, Aetna was the first major health benefits company to offer transgender-inclusive benefits for its employees and any contracted companies choosing to do so for their employees. In its 2015 benefits plans, Aetna expanded coverage for gender reassignment procedures in the 33 Aetna plans offered to federal employees, in addition to all commercial business including individual and small group plans.”

A spokesman for HRC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Baker’s lawsuit. 

Watch CBS’s report above and read the full complaint below. 

 

Image: Screenshot via CBS Dallas/Fort Worth