The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s Board of Directors (BoD) announced changes to its Gender Affirming Care (GAC) Plan via email on Jan. 23. Under the new plan, students seeking reimbursement for GAC will now submit requests to SSMU’s internal Gender and Sexuality Commissioner. Previously, these individuals would have submitted their claims to GreenShield, the insurance provider that offers SSMU’s broader Studentcare health and dental plan.
In SSMU’s email, the BoD reported that the Commissioner will anonymize GAC claims for review by their Gender and Sexuality Advocacy Committee. The current Commissioner, Bronwyn Walsh, confirmed in an interview with The Tribune that once the Committee approves these claims, the Commissioner will forward them to SSMU’s Finance Department, who will then distribute reimbursements.
“I hope it’s a comfort to people to know that their applications are going through a group of queer and trans people, rather than some kind of nebulous insurance company,” Walsh said.
Walsh further clarified that, unlike Studentcare’s GAC, SSMU would not require a gender dysphoria diagnosis for reimbursement.
Alice Postovskiy, representative of the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE), spoke with The Tribune about how SSMU could be an improvement from Studentcare, which she claimed was a “predatory insurance broker.”
“I trust the Gender and Sexuality Commissioner to not arbitrarily reject claims much more than I do an insurance company,” Postovskiy said.
However, both Walsh and Postovskiy expressed concerns about SSMU’s motivations behind the policy change, and the process through which this shift was made. According to Walsh, they learned of SSMU’s decision to assign their role reimbursement duties only a few weeks before all SSMU members were informed. Prior to this, the BoD had discussed the issue in confidential sessions. Walsh also claimed that the BoD proceeded with the change predominantly for financial reasons, after noticing they were losing money from the Studentcare model.
“I, unfortunately, don’t think that most of the execs […] [had] trans students’ best interests at heart, it was more [about] money,” Walsh said.
SSMU President Dymetri Taylor told The Tribune that planning publicly would have put the union at risk of being taken advantage of financially.
Rachel Bainbridge-Sedivy, a member of the Trans Patient Union (TPU), reported that the TPU was not consulted, despite their sustained efforts to improve the Studentcare plan.
“We’ve met with representatives from Studentcare and Greenshield over this: we have valuable expertise on this topic in many ways, and we should have been consulted,” Bainbridge-Sedivy wrote to The Tribune.
Postovskiy also criticized the SSMU’s decision to act in an insurance-provider role without putting proper accountability mechanisms to ensure the longevity of the reimbursement program.
“The SSMU does not have, in the same way an insurance company who signed a contract does, a commitment to [reimburse GAC],” Postovskiy said. “If an insurance company refuses to provide insurance, you can send them a formal demand letter and take legal action [….] [SSMU] could just cancel [the program]. They could just refuse to do it.”
Bainbridge-Sedivy also expressed worries about the program’s long-term stability once Walsh leaves their role.
“We worry that it would be very easy, a few years from now, for this to be either forgotten and underfunded or cut entirely without notifying students,” Bainbridge-Sedivy wrote.
Taylor stated that SSMU’s status as reimburser will not be “the new norm,” as SSMU is aware that it does not have the infrastructure or expertise to provide GAC reimbursement long-term.
“Put frankly, this isn’t the position we wanted to be in either”, Taylor wrote. “It’s a stopgap until finances can be properly rectified.”
Despite the changes SSMU has made to its GAC reimbursement structure, GAC will continue to follow the Studentcare plan’s terms of coverage. This means that Studentcare’s maximum reimbursement of $5000 CAD per GAC procedure, and lifetime maximum of $10,000 CAD, remain intact.
Bainbridge-Sedivy discussed the TPU’s concerns about the policy’s uncertain status.
“This is an improvement if and only if the SSMU has a rigorous plan to fund and manage this, and protections to ensure that keeps happening long term,” Bainbridge-Sedivy wrote. “The problem is that there is currently no evidence that they can do so competently, and if this falls apart, transgender students are worse off than they ever were.”
To submit a GAC claim for procedures happening this semester, fill out the SSMU Form for Gender Affirming Care. To be covered for procedures that occurred before Jan. 1, 2025, submit claims directly to Studentcare.
