Judge Strikes Down Florida’s Medicaid Ban on Trans Health Care
metroweekly.comrule prohibiting Medicaid from covering the cost of gender-affirming medical treatments that assist a transgender-identifying person in transitioning.The rule, approved last August by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, applies to treatments sought out by both minors and adults, declaring that transition-related treatments do not “meet the definition of medical necessity” to qualify for coverage under Medicaid.The rule was passed as Florida officials have sought to crack down on all forms of LGBTQ visibility, including passing a law blocking transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming treatments.Under the administration of Republican Gov.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have deemed all gender-affirming treatments “experimental and investigational.” The board has since crafted additional rules throwing up additional obstacles for adults to access transition-related care, such as requiring patients to see only a doctor, in person, before every course of treatment, and to sign “informed consent” forms portraying gender-affirming treatments as dangerous to their health.Two transgender adults and two minors, represented by their parents for legal purposes, subsequently sued the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and its head, Secretary Jason Weida, in federal court.The plaintiffs claimed the rule prohibiting Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care, and a section of the law banning access to transition-related health care imposing identical prohibitions on coverage, are discriminatory on the basis of gender identity and sex, and violate provisions requiring Medicaid to include all necessary services needed to treat a physical or mental.
