Aon Employee Healthcare Scheme Now Covers Gender Dysphoria

As of 1 July, Aon's private healthcare scheme, which is provided by Bupa, now includes cover for gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID), a diagnosable condition when a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, and they don't feel comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth.

The late James Kenrick, an Aon colleague who was part of the Employee Benefits team, was a pioneer in bringing gender dysphoria cover to our clients, including Lloyds Banking Group who were the first organisation in the UK to introduce this in 2016. Given our commitment to an inclusive culture, we were then encouraged to introduce cover for gender dysphoria within our own benefits package, to ensure all colleagues can bring their whole selves to work. This is a significant change to our scheme which will now enable members with gender dysphoria to access professional support and treatment.

David Battle, CEO of Employee Benefits UK says, "The inclusion of cover for gender dysphoria in our private medical insurance scheme is a fitting tribute to the work of our late and much missed colleague James Kenrick who sadly passed away earlier this year.

James, acting on behalf of Aon, actively challenged the private medical market to introduce this cover. It required his innate sense of fairness and his legendary tough negotiation skills to achieve this. I know he would have been delighted to see cover for gender dysphoria now being adopted by Aon and other forward thinking Aon clients."

Depending on the level of private healthcare cover colleagues have elected in Select i.e. entry level or comprehensive, scheme members will now have access to counselling and support services through to cover for surgical procedures, options which are generally excluded from private healthcare schemes, so we're proud to be leading in the industry in providing such inclusive benefits.

Jim Herbert, Global Enterprise Client Group Leader says, "I am delighted that we have extended Aon's private healthcare scheme to cover gender dysphoria. This is a market leading development underlining our commitment to Inclusion and maintaining our overt internal and external pledge to all colleagues that they will have an equal opportunity to be their true selves at Aon.

As sponsor of Aon's Pride Alliance network I have been fortunate to learn more about gender identity and the challenges it creates in our society. Gender dysphoria is often misunderstood leading to colleagues being unable to be open about their personal lives and potentially leading to serious mental health conditions.

I am immensely proud that we at Aon are leading the way on gender dysphoria. Having developed this solution for our business I am also proud that we can now offer this extension in cover to many of our clients – it will make a huge difference to the trans community."