Kaiser Permanente
Corprate Bias Ratings
Risk Level:
Summary:
Kaiser Permanente denied the requests of thousands of employees to receive a religious exemption to the company's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, eventually terminating many employees. Kaiser Permanente has demonstrated a clear ideological bias in its provision of medical care, expanding the number of its facilities providing abortions after the overturn of Roe v. Wade and providing puberty blockers to minors. The company's medical benefits cover puberty blockers (even if they are minors), hormone therapy treatment, and gender reassignment surgeries for its employees and their children. Kaiser Permanente vets vendors according to LGBTQ policies and does not protect its employees against viewpoint discrimination. The company covers the cost of "medically necessary transition-related care” for its employees and their children. Kaiser Permanente supports ESG within its business practices, sign open legislation in support of the Equality Act, and the company's CEO signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge. Kaiser Permanente has pledged support to BLM and related causes and committed to addressing systemic racism. For these reasons, Kaiser Permanente receives a High Risk rating.
Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.
Kaiser Permanente placed over 2,200 employees on unpaid leave for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19, rejecting requests for religious exemptions and threatening termination for those who did not get vaccinated by the deadline of December 2021 (1)(2). Kaiser Permanente received a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index. Among other requirements, this means the company has a written policy pledging to vet vendors for LGBTQ policies (3)(4).
Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.
Kaiser Permanente’s charitable giving guidelines require that organizations abide by its nondiscrimination policy, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, thereby excluding some religious charities (1).
Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.
Kaiser Permanente does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1).
Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.
Kaiser Permanente is an advocate of pro-abortion policy, referring to the procedure as comprehensive healthcare (1)(2). After the events of 2020, Kaiser Permanente published annual report on DEI that stated, “Kaiser Permanente reaffirmed our commitment to advance equity and address systemic racism for our members, communities, employees, and physicians.” (3). The company’s CEO signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace (4). Kaiser Permanente is a member of the Business Coalition for the Equality Act and in 2019 ran an ad featuring a “Drag Queen Story Hour” attended by children (5)(6). The company has published statements voicing support for transgender ideology and related medical treatments (7). Kaiser supports ESG within its business practices. The company states “We continue active engagement with our investment partners on ESG elements, and ESG dimensions are increasingly present in investment decision-making, which is done solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries” (8).
Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Kaiser Permanente further expanded its abortion-related facilities to support those seeking the procedure across state lines (1). Kaiser Permanente also covers abortion-related travel costs for its own employees (2). The company has a perfect score on the HRC’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index. This score indicates the company covers the cost of “medically necessary transition-related care” for its employees and their children (3)(4). The company has 4 medical centers which also received a perfect score on the HRC Healthcare Equality Index (5). This indicates, among other things, the medical centers “offer transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits to their employees”, which includes coverage for hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers (even for minors), and gender reassignment surgeries (6)(7). The company dedicated $25 million in grant funding to nonprofits working to “dismantle discriminatory institutional practices, structures, and public policies” (8). Kaiser Permanente has pledged support to Black Lives Matter and related causes (9)(10).
All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
September 23, 2023
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