In America, the Human Rights Campaign are to produce their annual Corporate Equality Index. This year, the criteria will include whether a company's medical insurance will cover the cost of gender re-assignment. Because of the USA's costly medical system, many transgendered people find it difficult to cover the costs of re-assignment treatment without insurance cover from their employers.

Already some of the USA's biggest companies, such as Yahoo!, Coca Cola and American Express, do cover the cost of treatment within their company health insurance policy, as they see the benefits of keeping their transgendered employees within the workforce, and not having those employees find themselves in financial difficulties.

If a company wants to receive a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index, they must now offer employees medical insurance which covers up to $75,000 worth of gender re-assignment treatment and surgery. Because of this, many more companies are expected to bring this policy in, following in the footsteps of the companies mentioned above. As it will only be used by a minority of employees, the scheme would not be too expensive, yet will have a major effect on transgendered employees' lives and ability to continue working for their companies.This is not only good news for trans employees, but also for the firms who will offer this insurance cover.

You can read more on this story at Pink News here.