Fidelity Investments’ employee health-care plans cover abortion services and the company has expanded coverage of travel expenses for medical procedures, including abortions, that are not available within 50 miles of a Fidelity employee’s home, said Michael Aalto, a Fidelity spokesman, in an email.
Previously, Fidelity’s health-care plans only covered travel and lodging costs for certain procedures, such as transplants, Mr. Aalto said..
“Fidelity’s benefits are designed to support the total lives and well-being of our associates. We offer generous benefit packages that provide for in- and out-of-state care,” Mr. Aalto said.
Fidelity managed $4.3 trillion with discretion and $11.3 trillion of assets under advisement as of March 31.
BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest manager with $9.6 trillion in assets, has not publicly commented about the Supreme Court’s ruling. But on July 27, it sent a memo to employees saying it would cover travel expenses for abortion care, Yahoo Finance reported. The money manager declined requests by P&I for comment.
“Through company-sponsored health insurance, we have long provided reproductive health-care services, including coverage for birth control and abortion or miscarriage care,” Manish Mehta, BlackRock’s global head of human resources, wrote in an email to staff, according to Yahoo.
How employees will engage companies about the travel benefit, and how their privacy would be protected from states that seek information about their health care, is unclear.
A number of asset managers that P&I reached out to about covering travel costs related to abortion care did not respond. It is possible that those managers are in discussions with their insurance providers to change the benefits they offer. Others, like BlackRock, might be assuring employees they will cover the travel expenses internally, rather than publicly.