Trans patients sue Florida over Medicaid rule banning gender-affirming care [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Groups of transgenders and their families are suing Florida in federal court over a Medicaid rule banning gender-affirming care.
• The advocacy groups say that Florida’s changes to Medicaid rules is plain discrimination.
• The new Florida rule bars transgenders in the state from using Medicaid to help pay for gender-affirming care, including behavioral therapy, hormone-blocking medications and surgery.

Advocacy groups sued Florida over new rule that bans the state’s Medicaid program from covering the costs associated with gender-affirming care. Florida’s chief Medicaid regulator finalized the ban last month.

The lawsuit argues that it violates the federal equal protection clause and prevents about 9,000 transgender state Medicaid enrollees from getting critical gender-affirming care.

At least 10 U.S. states, including Florida, block transgenders from using Medicaid to help pay for gender-affirming care, including behavioral therapy, hormone-blocking medications and surgery.

Carl Charles, a senior attorney for the Southern Regional Office of Lambda Legal, which is one of the advocacy groups that file the suit, said the move to ban coverage increases concerns because Florida had covered gender-affirming care costs for years.

“This is a 180 for Florida, and is particularly troubling because they’ve been covering this care without issue in their Medicaid program for years,” Charles said. “So to take this affirmative step in the wrong direction is troubling to say the least.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four plaintiffs — August Dekker, Brit Rothstein, and two 12-year-old children identified in the lawsuit as “Susan,” a transgender girl, and “K.F.,” a transgender boy.

In a news conference announcing the lawsuit, Dekker, a transgender man, said that the new rules have banned him from access to health care he cannot otherwise afford.

“All trans people want to do is live more closely and align with who we are,” 28-year-old Dekker said. “What the state is doing is incredibly harmful.”

Dekker added that he still plans to take his prescribed hormone therapy drugs but is concerned on how to pay for the medication.

Earlier this year, the organizations formed a coalition after Tom Wallace, the Medicaid chief for Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, determined that there was no evidence that treatments for gender dysphoria, including hormone therapy, surgeries and puberty blockers for kids, provided any health benefits.

Following Wallace’s recommendation, AHCA Secretary Simone Marstiller finalized new rules that block coverage for gender-affirming care last month.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care for adults and adolescents. However, instead of surgery, doctors are more likely to recommend counseling, social transitioning and hormone replacement therapy.

Florida has also started the process to ban minors from receiving gender-affirming care, though no final regulations are finalized.

Source: NBC News