Health Insurance Update
Christian Business Sued Because Its Health Insurance Does Not Pay for Employee’s Gender Dysphoria Treatment
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August 9, 2024
by Jorge Gomez ? 4 minutes
Turbocam, Inc., a private company owned by a Christian family, is being sued for choosing a health insurance plan that excludes coverage for gender dysphoria treatment in accordance with its owners’ religious beliefs.
An employee who’s worked for Turbocam since 2019 recently filed a lawsuit in federal district court because of the exclusion in the insurance policy.
We represent Turbocam as co-counsel in the lawsuit.
Based in New Hampshire, Turbocam specializes in manufacturing “flow path components for aviation, rocketry, automotive turbocharger, and power generation.” Marian Noronha and his wife, Suzie, founded Turbocam in 1985. They have openly operated the business in accordance with their sincere Christian beliefs. On its website, the company makes clear its mission is “to honor God, create wealth for its employees, and support Christian service to God and to people.”
The company offers a generous self-funded insurance plan for its employees. For employees who don’t want to participate in the company insurance it provides a generous opt-out bonus that allows the employee to choose the health care coverage or services they desire. Many of Turbocam’s employees choose this option.
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Turbocam is no different from countless employers and businesses all across the country that operate and offer insurance coverage consistent with their mission and values. It chose an insurance plan that reflects its religious beliefs, which includes a provision saying the company will not cover gender dysphoria treatment in its plan.
In November 2023, however, a transgender employee represented by an LGBT advocacy group sued in court accusing Turbocam of unlawful discrimination. They’re also suing the third-party administrator (TPA) that handles Turbocam’s health plan, claiming the gender dysphoria exclusion violated a provision of the Affordable Care Act, aka, Obamacare.
In addition to defending the claims made against Turbocam, First Liberty has asked the court to allow Turbocam to help defend the claim against its TPA, as well.? If the current TPA can no longer administer Turbocam’s employee health plan with the exclusion for gender dysphoria, Turbocam will face a Hobson’s choice. Turbocam will need to either: (1) remove the exclusion and pay for gender dysphoria treatment, violating its religious beliefs in the process; or (2) stop offering its employees health insurance at all.
Federal law protects employers like Turbocam who operate in accordance with their sincere religious beliefs. The U.S. Supreme Court made clear in the landmark ruling Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that Americans do not lose their religious freedom when they open a business. Closely-held corporations have a right to choose insurance plans that reflect their religious beliefs, and to abstain from funding treatments or procedures that will violate their conscience.
This isn’t just about the law protecting Turbocam and similar businesses. The company and its owners care for this employee and all their employees and condemn unlawful discrimination. Turbocam has consistently provided as much support as possible consistent with its faith and the law. Even after a catastrophic drop in orders in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Turbocam laid off only a small percentage of its employees—the first time it had laid off any employee. To preserve as many jobs as possible, Turbocam sold shares in another company and a house that was used for visiting staff. Three Noronha family members took significant wage cuts, with two of them taking wage cuts of 100%.
Turbocam understands that its employees have different health care needs. That’s precisely why it provides a substantial bonus to employees who opt out of its health plan so they can choose the health care services they desire.
Humble Beginnings and Doing Business with a Higher Purpose
Today, Turbocam is a tremendously successful company creating wealth for about 900 employees. Its components and parts even fly on the International Space Station.
But that success didn’t happen overnight. It took Marion Noronha many years of work and dedication to build a profitable business.
Noronha was born and raised in India. He left there in the 1970s to attend engineering graduate school in North America, and remembers landing in Montreal with something like six dollars in his pocket.
He has certainly not forgotten his company’s humble beginnings. And throughout the years, he’s always worked with a higher purpose in service to God and people. It’s why the company still credits its success to God’s grace and seeks to “honor God by honoring his people and reflecting to them the same love that God has for them.”
Between 1999 and 2000, working with churches in rural Nepal, Noronha and his wife bought 42 slave families in Nepal out of slavery. They also bought land in Nepal and established villages for their settlement. Their efforts helped spark the abolishment of slavery in Nepal in 2000, which freed about 200,000 people. Turbocam has funded all its efforts in Nepal for over 25 years, and employees from all of its divisions have contributed to the building of schools, water treatment systems, teaching and transferring technology and equipment, and teaching in the churches.