West Virginia asks Supreme Court to allow Medicaid to deny coverage for gender-affirming surgery

West Virginia will take its fight over whether its Medicaid program should cover gender-affirming surgeries to the Supreme Court, the state’s Republican attorney general announced Thursday.

“Once again, the state of West Virginia will go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at a news conference in Bridgeport, W.Va.

The announcement is the latest development in a legal battle that has been ongoing since 2020, when three transgender men alleged in a class-action lawsuit that West Virginia’s refusal to cover transition surgeries violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

In 2022, a federal judge ordered the state to cover the proceedings, a ruling affirmed by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April. In the 4th Circuit ruling, Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by former President Clinton, wrote that West Virginia’s exclusion — as well as a similar North Carolina policy — is “obviously discriminatory” and violates the Medicaid Act and the Affordable Care.

Morrisey and other state officials say West Virginia’s policy prohibiting coverage of gender-affirming surgeries reflects cost concerns rather than anti-transgender animus.

“We are not a rich state. We cannot afford to do everything, and that is one of the challenges we have with this mandate. There is only so much money available, and spending money on some treatments necessarily takes away from others,” Morrisey, who is running for state governor, said Thursday.

“Our state’s Medicaid program made a reasonable decision to reserve scarce funding for medically necessary treatments rather than elective surgeries,” he said, adding that the decision was made to ensure adequate resources for people with heart disease, diabetes and other conditions. medical conditions.

Leading medical organizations argue that gender-affirming care is medically necessary, although not all trans people choose to medically transition or have access to care. In April, Shauntae Anderson, a transgender woman and plaintiff in the class action lawsuit challenging West Virginia’s Medicaid exclusion, said her state’s refusal to cover gender-affirming surgeries is “profoundly dehumanizing” and unnecessarily restricts access to care. essential healthcare.

Morrisey, whose candidacy for governor is supported by former President Trump, continues to shift to the right on transgender issues, frequently referring to transgender women as “men” and capitalizing on misinformation surrounding gender-affirming healthcare. in campaign ads.

Thursday’s appeal to the Supreme Court, he said, could have national significance.

“This is a case that we think should be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court because it is interpreting an important federal law, the Medicaid Act, and presents a constitutional question of national importance: whether Medicaid or any state-related insurance program should cover All transgender people beware,” Morrisey said Thursday.

The order is the third order from the West Virginia Supreme Court in the past month. The state is also asking the court to review a lower court ruling that blocks it from enforcing a 2021 law that bans transgender student-athletes from competing in sports and that blocks new power plant rules from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Supreme Court last year rejected a request by Morrisey to allow the state to enforce the ban on trans athletes, although Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story