University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) has now joined the club of universities including Yale, Brown, Penn, Harvard and Cornell among others offering a student health insurance plan that pays the cost of sex-change surgeries of its students, starting this fall. But this does not come without a rider; the university has also proposed a 15 percent hike in the annual costs to students.
The gender reassignment procedure alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to the other sex. Around 11,500 out of 27,000 UIC students use the student health plan, called CampusCare. Since the sex-change surgeries will not be performed at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System, students will be asked to bear 30 percent of the cost. The flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign and its smaller campus in Springfield do not offer this plan.
The board of trustees voted 6-2 to approve the new policy besides proposing the 15 percent hike in the annual cost to students. Now, the students will have to pay $922 a year, part of the increase, around $9, covers the sex-change operation.
The Wednesday meeting in Chicago saw trustees contemplating about 15 minutes on whether the gender reassignment could lead to taxpayer funding issues. Some taxpayers might not support it.
Trustees Timothy Koritz and Edward McMillan, both Republicans, voted against the procedure saying that state and federal financial aid for sex-change surgery could lead to problems. Two board members were absent.
"I just hope that doesn't put us as a university, the Chicago campus in particular, in a difficult position with parents particularly who feel that (they shouldn't have to help pay for it)," McMillan said.
Koritz, who is an anaesthesiologist said he will not be comfortable attending such surgeries.
"It is our responsibility to be (financially) responsible with taxpayers' dollars, and I think a lot of taxpayers may feel that is not an appropriate use of their money," Koritz said. "I don't feel that ethically, morally ... that I could support the possibility of that happening at the university."
Trustee Patrick Fitzgerald, a political independent and a former U.S. attorney, said that it is sometimes impossible to consider how comfortable taxpayers would feel about every other probable medical procedure. Plus, the percentage of students going through gender reassignment is very low.
"I would be uncomfortable if we got into a situation where we looked at every ... procedure and tried to decide how comfortable taxpayers would feel," said Fitzgerald, who is considered a political independent.
