Where I Stand

I stand for equal access to health care, reproductive rights, and a woman’s right to choose.

I stand for equal access to health care, reproductive rights, and a woman’s right to choose.

Several large companies are coming out with announcements that signal where they stand, by announcing support for their American employees who are facing restrictions on their health care and civil rights.

Several employers announced employees can be reimbursed for travel expenses to seek non-life-threatening care. For at least one major employer, the policy includes reproductive health and transgender care.

The announcements are welcome. But it’s so sad that it’s come to this.

In America, employer policies are important in determining the health care options we have access to. To the rest of the world this sounds crazy, and the rest of the world is right.

About half of Americans get their health care from employer-sponsored plans. And about half of reproductive-age women in the US *currently* live in states with laws restricting abortion coverage by private health care plans.

However, those restrictions do not apply to companies with “self-funded” plans. It’s complicated, but by my math, about a third of Americans get health care coverage from their jobs that at least partially evades at least some of these regulations.

And let’s try to guess which third that is.

There are many insurmountably obnoxious problems with this arrangement. One is that it is horribly and tragically misaligned with the goal of providing everybody equal access to their own human rights.

It makes it even harder for the most vulnerable to get what they need to live happy, healthy lives. That needs to change.

Stepping past the traditional definition of health care, I think it’s also worth asking whether these announcements might signal a growing recognition of our need for psychological safety at work.

It’s obvious to me that people feel safer if their employer is concerned about their well-being. We feel more trusting and confident when our jobs prioritize and protect our physical safety, our mental health, and our overall well-being.

We also feel safer when we feel our employers are aligned with our values. This has been below the surface for a long time, but from my work and my writing I can see it rising to the top.

These are the new table stakes for the modern relationship between us and our bosses.

Employers are increasingly expected to demonstrate their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, civil rights, human rights, and social justice. We want to see companies thoughtfully taking these positions, whether or not we believe we’ll be directly impacted by them. And we all are.

These decisions will contribute to our decisions about whether or not we join an employer, and whether or not we’ll stay.

Many companies will let their silence speak for them. That’s their choice.

The message from the workforce is clear: Show us that you stand with us, if you want us to stand with you.