West Virginia Trans Workers Sue Over Health Coverage Exclusions

Transgender public employees in West Virginia and Medicaid enrollees want the state to end its health insurance plans’ blanket exclusions on paying for gender-confirming care, they told a federal court Thursday.

The plans’ refusal to pay for treatments such as counseling, hormone replacement therapy, and surgery intended to treat gender dysphoria discriminates against transgender people on the basis of sex in violation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, and the Medicaid Act, the group says in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Medicaid ...