Mayor Horrigan Announces New Gender Affirming Health Benefits For City Employees
Akron, Ohio, February 14, 2022 — Effective July 2021, the City of Akron added gender affirming surgery to the City’s benefit plan. For several years the City has offered hormonal therapy benefits and now the City's medical plan offers coverage for surgical treatments for gender affirmation for both employees and their dependents.
“I am incredibly proud of our efforts to continue to create equity here at the City for our employees,” said Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan. “We now join other Ohio cities including Toledo, Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati in offering coverage for surgical treatments for gender affirmation to support transgender employees. As a City, we have placed a high importance on equity and that’s a goal that we must always be striving towards and improving upon. These new benefits for our employees are just one more step in the right direction.”
“Creating an inclusive environment for all of our employees to thrive in and which encourages them to bring their full, authentic selves to work each day is vitally important to our success," said Director of Human Resources Yamini Adkins. "I'd like to thank my staff for their tireless efforts in making these new benefits a reality."
Additionally, Akron scored a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Municipal Equality Index (MEI) Scorecard for 2021 earning one of HRC’s MEI “All Star” designations. The HRC's Municipal Equality Index is the only nationwide rating system of LGBTQ+ inclusion in municipal law and policy, and shows how cities across the country continue to take the lead in supporting LGBTQ+ people and workers. You can view Akron’s 2021 scorecard here.
“Each year, the HRC makes their scorecard a little bit harder to gain that perfect score,” continued Mayor Horrigan. “And each year, we strive to hit that high mark in order to continuously improve our support for our LGBTQ+ community. I’m happy to say that this year we hit that mark, and with our new benefits, we hope to score 100 again in 2022.”
The City does not have data on how many will take advantage of the new benefits. The cost impact on its medical plan is expected to be minimal.
