Transgender Medicaid Patients Argue for Affirming Bias Ruling

West Virginia Medicaid’s refusal to pay for gender-confirming surgery is discriminatory and unconstitutional, beneficiaries told the Fourth Circuit in a filing urging the court to uphold a decision striking the blanket ban.

A provision excluding coverage for “transsexual surgery” is facially discriminatory based on sex because it necessarily rests on a sex classification, treats cisgender and transgender people differently based solely on their sex, and relies on entrenched sexual stereotypes to punish transgender people for their non-conformity, the beneficiaries said.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit should affirm a lower court’s summary judgment for the beneficiaries that ...