The Office of Personnel Management must do more to end discrimination against transgender employees and ensure federal health insurance covers transgender care, an advocacy group said.

The National Center for Transgender Equality said Nov. 13 that it was disappointed that virtually every Federal Employee Health Benefits plan failed to include transgender care and has maintained outdated and discriminatory exclusions.

In June the Office of Personnel Management said it was lifting a ban on transgender care among federal health employee health insurance providers, but it didn't require companies to provide care.

A small number of other plans across the country have moved to include transgender care, including the Foreign Service Benefit plan, open only to members of the American Foreign Service Protective Association.

Aetna announced on Oct. 24 that gender reassignment surgery and other medical care will be available starting in 2015 on the 33 plans the insurer offers through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.

But so far all of the national fee-for-service plans have maintained the exclusion for transgender care, according to 2015 plans listed with OPM.

Maria Keisling, the president of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said she was disappointed by the insurance plans that have chosen to keep discriminatory policies in place.

OPM should end these unfair practices by requiring insurance plans to cover transgender care for 2016 plans, Keisling said. OPM normally sends insurance companies a letter in the spring of every year detailing what it wants FEHBP plans to cover.

"Insurance companies have already been put on notice and have ignored it. It's time that OPM aggressively enforce anti-discrimination protections for federal workers," Keisling said.

Emily Prince, a federal employee and transgender activist who has pushed for OPM to require transgender care in health insurance plans, said the ongoing discrimination was illegal and that only continued pressure would force the administration to act.

"OPM acknowledges that transition-related care is medically necessary, but goes on to allow insurers to block coverage of it simply on the basis of gender identity," Prince said. "Former Speaker Pelosi likes to say "being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition," but if you're trans, that's just not true."

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