Starbucks now offering “reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when accessing abortion or gender-affirming procedures.”
QUICK FACTS:
- A top Starbucks executive on Monday told company “partners” that the multinational coffeehouse will cover costs sustained by employees who must travel out of state to receive an abortion or “gender-affirming” medical services.
- Sara Kelly, senior vice president of Talent & Partner Experience at Starbucks, wrote a letter to employees explaining the company had expanded its healthcare benefits to include “reimbursement” for travel expenses related to the services.
- “Today I’m announcing that we are expanding our U.S. healthcare benefit to further protect your personal health decisions,” Kelly wrote in the letter. “Regardless of where you live or what you believe, partners enrolled in Starbucks healthcare will now be offered reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when accessing abortion or gender-affirming procedures when those services are not available within 100 miles of a partner’s home.”
- Kelly went on to describe how the benefit will also apply to dependents of employees enrolled in Starbucks healthcare program: “Whatever healthcare choice you believe is right for you and your family, you deserve access to those services and the benefits that Starbucks provides,” she wrote.
WHAT STARBUCKS’ BENEFITS INCLUDE:
- “Family Expansion Reimbursement programs to assist with costs associated with growing your family, like adoption, surrogacy or fertility treatments.”
- “Paid leave for benefits-eligible partners who welcome a new child by birth, adoption or foster.”
- “Health insurance options for transgender partners to include gender-affirming care.”
- “Health insurance options to cover preventative care and contraception.”
- “Free mental health and counseling sessions through Lyra for all partners.”
- “And, coming soon, reimbursement for travel expenses for certain healthcare services not available in your community, as shared above.”
BACKGROUND:
- Starbucks has joined a growing list of employers to offer abortion-related benefits after a leak two weeks ago revealed the Supreme Court will likely overturn the decades-old Roe v. Wade decision and let states ban the procedure.
- The coffee chain has 240,000 U.S. employees, according to Kelly’s letter.
