Dan Shapiro

You Shouldn’t Have to Ask: Open and Inclusive Insurance

We decided to publish our insurance coverage in public, where anyone could see it, to make our company more inclusive for everyone. Here are the plans we offer, and below is the story of how this happened.

2024 Glowforge Health Insurance Benefits

We founded Glowforge knowing we would only succeed if our team reflected the diversity of our customers. It took me a while to realize that the secrecy around health insurance plans would get in our way – and that it was as easy to fix as writing this blog post.

The story started started when my friend Leigh Honeywell tweeted about the kind of culture she looks for in a company – specifically, that she wants to know if a company’s health insurance is transgender-inclusive, even though it’s not an issue that affects her directly.

Then, a few days later, Trynity Mirell posted that she was looking for a new job, but could only consider roles with trans-inclusive health insurance. It seems obvious in retrospect, but I’d never thought of it before: for some people, the fine print in the insurance coverage is the difference between being able to take a job or not.

Then I realized how common this challenge is. If you’re living with chronic illness, are expecting a child, are planning major surgery, or suffering from mental health issues, you need to know if your job will cover your needs. The fine print on a health insurance plan could turn your dream job into a financial catastrophe. In some parts of the country, even benefits we here in Seattle take for granted (like the coverage of contraception) are at the whims of the plan or employer.

I had no idea if our insurance was inclusive. It had never occurred to me to check. But it didn’t take much imagination to realize the predicament of someone searching for a job, knowing that the details of the health insurance offered could spell bankruptcy for them. What’s worse, there’s no way to find out the answers short of asking directly – an uncomfortable conversation for some people that could expose the job-seeker to questions and illegal discrimination.

It’s not fair to force candidates to disclose these deeply personal matters in the course of a job interview. I sat down with our head of business operations to try and find a way to fix this. We wound up doing two things that we think are extremely important, and we urge other companies to do the same.

First, we’re posting the full insurance summaries of our current insurance plans. Candidates can look at these documents even before applying to understand what coverage we offer and know if it will work for them.

Second, we asked our health plan representatives about major issues that we’ve heard are important and are not addressed in the insurance summary, and are sharing the answers here: 

  • Fertility treatments are covered when they treat an underlying condition, but not otherwise.
  • IVF is not covered, but we offer help through a separate plan with WIN fertility. 
  • Abortion care is covered. 
  • Gender affirmation surgery and other transgender-related care is covered if approved as medically necessary.
  • Our new “Flight to safety” program covers transportation if abortion or gender-affirming care is not available in your state.

I wish these answers were even more inclusive, but it’s the best coverage on the market at our size of company. It includes high quality medical, dental, vision, life, short term & long term disability insurance.  Glowforge covers 100% of the premiums for the employee, plus 50% of the cost for dependents.  This includes domestic partners, too.

You can look at the documents linked above for more details. If you have any other questions or if there are any major omissions, you can email them to us at [email protected].  Feel free to use an anonymous ‘throwaway’ email account, for example using http://mailinator.com.  Also, feedback is very welcome. There are a lot of thoughtful people who’ve thought about these issues more than us, and we’d welcome opinions on how we could improve.

One important caveat: this post was last updated 1/5/2024. Insurance changes at least on a yearly basis, and sometimes more often. We’ll do our best to update this when it changes, but if you’re considering a job with us, and this question is an important one for you, email us (anonymously or not) to be sure you’ve got the latest information.

Here again is that link:

2024 Glowforge Health Insurance Benefits