Other health and dental coverage also added to re-vamped plan
Photo by Erik McGregor via Getty Images.
On June 7, 2024, UVic’s Graduate Students Society (GSS) passed a referendum that will introduce gender affirming care and other amendments.
The health and dental referendum had six questions, including whether to include gender affirming care, increase vision exam coverage, increase physiotherapy coverage, and increase dental coverage. The last two questions concerned the structure of funding increases, including whether health and dental care should be tied to inflation.
All of the amendments passed, resulting in the introduction of gender affirming care coverage, as well as increases in vision, physiotherapy and dental coverage. The new funding structure will mean a 4.4 per cent overall increase for one year, and further increases tied to inflation — resulting in a lessened need for future referendums.
The referendum saw a 16 per cent voter turnout; around 422 voters out of the eligible 2633. This is a significant increase upon the last health and dental referendum, which saw a 6.49 per cent voter turnout.
The GSS Director of External Relations, Jitendra Palaparty, led the referendum’s development. Palaparty explained that the new health and dental fees mean that graduate students who are a part of the plan will have both an overall increase in coverage and an improvement of existing coverage.
For dental care, this means that students will be able to have care covered every six months, rather than the previous nine month cycle. Further, eye exam coverage will increase from $75 per exam to $100 per exam, and physiotherapy coverage will increase from $200 to $500 per year.
Notably, gender affirming care will be covered for a lifetime amount up to $15,000 per student. This amendment will mean an $8 per year increase will apply to graduate students’ health and dental insurance costs.
According to the World Health Organization, gender affirming care exists on a continuum, and may include “social, psychological, behavioural or medical (including hormonal treatment or surgery) interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity.”
Palaparty attributes becoming involved in the GSS to being passionate about securing gender affirming care for graduate students.
Last year, Palaparty noticed that the UVSS had gender affirming care coverage, but it was absent from the GSS. Palaparty, a graduate student herself, tried to access the UVSS’ insurance plan. According to Palaparty, she went to the UVSS insurance office and asked how she could access the plan but was met with barriers. From there, Palaparty took a formal position with the GSS where she worked hard to pass the referendum, including personally speaking with over 200 graduate students.
“I did literally everything I could for this to pass, and it did,” said Palaparty.
Still, she adds, “There is just not enough awareness about what gender affirming care is. I’ve spoken to at least 50 students who do not know what is gender affirming care.”
Although the gender affirming care amendment had fewer affirmative votes than the other points, Palaparty’s opinion is that there are few people against the amendment at UVic. “The [lack of] awareness piece is where I believe most of the ‘No’ votes are coming from.”
The referendum results will be put in place for graduate students at UVic beginning in the fall semester of this year.
