Federal judge strikes down Fla. Medicaid transgender healthcare ban
A federal judge issued an order Wednesday that permanently enjoins Florida from enforcing its ban on transgender residents using Medicaid for gender-affirming healthcare.
The trial last month ended a few days after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a flurry of anti-LGBTQ legislation on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, to include Senate Bill 254, which further restricted access to trans health care in the state.
Simone Chriss, director of the Transgender Rights Initiative with Southern Legal Counsel, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs, told WUSF Public Radio/NPR: “These are folks who are on Medicaid because they are low income or disabled and they cannot otherwise afford access to their treatments that they need.” U.S.
District Judge Robert Hinkle in his 54 page order noted: “For many years, Florida’s Medicaid system paid for medically necessary treatments for gender dysphoria.
