West Virginia Judge Rules Transgender Surgeries Must Be Covered by Medicaid

West Virginia
‘s Medicaid program is required to cover gender transition surgeries for
transgender
residents, a federal judge in Huntington ruled this week.

U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by
LGBT
interest group Lambda Legal, saying that a Medicaid exclusion for low-income residents with gender dysphoria would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, the Affordable Care Act, and the Medicaid Act.

“It is undisputed that the criteria determining whether or not such treatment is covered under the Medicaid Program hinges on a diagnosis — but when treatment is precluded for a diagnosis based on one’s gender identity, such exclusion invidiously discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status,” Chambers, an appointee of former President
Bill Clinton
, wrote in Tuesday’s 30-page opinion.

TWENTY-TWO STATES SUE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OVER TRANSGENDER RULE FOR SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM

Chambers cited the 2020
Supreme Court
decision in
Bostock v. Clayton County
, in which the justices ruled 6-3 that employers cannot discriminate against LGBT employees on the “basis of sex.”

“Only individuals who identify as transgender would seek ‘transsexual surgery,’ and as the Supreme Court reasoned … one cannot consider the term ‘transgender’ without considering sex,” Chambers added.

The judge also outright dismissed the claim that gender transition surgeries are not medically necessary, saying the argument is “wholly unsupported by the record, and importantly, is refuted by the majority of the medical community.”

An initial lawsuit challenging the state Department of Health and Human Resources’s blanket Medicaid exclusion was filed on behalf of Christopher Fain, who was denied coverage for a testosterone prescription under Medicaid, and Zachary Martell, who is married to a state employee with healthcare coverage.

Fain and Martell were rejected from being covered for a bilateral mastectomy, which led Fain to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 600 transgender residents who faced rejections for Medicaid coverage.

Shauntae Anderson, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, called Chambers’s decision “lifesaving” in a
statement
.

“I am excited to finally have access to the healthcare I deserve. The exclusion negatively affects my health and wellbeing as well as the health and wellbeing of other transgender Medicaid participants in our community,” Anderson said.

Lambda Legal attorney Avatara Smith-Carrington issued a statement after the ruling saying that transgender Medicaid participants in the state deserve to have equal access to healthcare that “cisgender Medicaid participants receive as a matter of course.”

“Protecting and advancing health care for transgender people is vital, sound, and just,” Smith-Carrington said.

The Washington Examiner contacted the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Chambers’s ruling comes as more Republican-led states seek to impose bans on gender transition treatments for minors, despite the Justice Department’s recent
attempts to counter
such bans by invoking the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Florida Republican Gov.
Ron DeSantis
announced Thursday he was
suspending
Democratic State Attorney Andrew Warren for refusing to enforce the state’s prohibition on sex-change surgeries for minors following the governor’s June
request
that the state’s board regulating doctors bar transition-related care for minors.

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This week, DeSantis said at a press conference that physicians providing such care to minors should be sued for these practices.

“You don’t disfigure 10, 12, 13-year-old kids based on gender dysphoria. Eighty percent of it resolves anyways by the time they get older,” DeSantis
said
. “I think these doctors need to get sued for what’s happening.”

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