Starbucks has announced that it plans to provide transgender employees with comprehensive healthcare coverage, including procedures most insurers exclude.
The coffee giant’s health insurance plans have offered coverage for gender reassignment surgery since 2012.
Now, the coffee brand also offers coverage for difficult to access procedures like facial feminization surgery and voice therapy, according to a statement posted on Starbucks’ website about the policy.
Starbucks worked with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) on the new benefits.
Starbucks was the first company in the world to ask WPATH to help translate their recommended standards of care into a medical benefits policy.
“Starbucks was not afraid to ask all the right questions and demand that people get the best possible care,” said Jamison Green, who worked with Starbucks on behalf of World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
“We produced a list of the most crucial benefits and those that are deemed problematic to insurance companies, such as facial feminization and electrolysis.”
