A federal judge has ruled the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program must cover transgender surgery in Wisconsin.
Judge William Conley, of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, an Obama appointee, said a 1997 state regulation that excluded transgender treatments and surgeries from Medicaid coverage violated federal law, including the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare; the federal Medicaid Act; and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
A press release at National Health Law Program (NHeLP), which joined with other law firms in the class action lawsuit that challenged the exclusion, noted the state did not appeal the ruling “and has agreed to settle the named plaintiffs’ remaining claims.”
The original case involved four plaintiffs with gender dysphoria — all on the state’s Medicaid program — who sought transgender treatments and surgeries but were unable to get the procedures funded. – READ MORE