The Arizona Medicaid agency’s blanket exclusion on paying for gender-affirming surgery violates Obamacare’s anti-bias provision and the equal protection clause, two transgender teens said in an appeal from an order refusing to block the agency’s policy.
Contrary to the lower court’s decision, longstanding circuit precedent holds that Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination against transgender people, D.H. and John Doe said in their opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The agency’s policy also is subject to heightened scrutiny under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, and it doesn’t pass that test, ...