CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia's and North Carolina's refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in a case likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-6 in the case involving coverage of gender-affirming care by North Carolina’s state employee health plan and the coverage of gender-affirming surgery by West Virginia Medicaid.
Specifically, North Carolina’s policy bars treatment or studies “leading to or in connection with sex changes or modifications and related care," while West Virginia’s bars coverage of “transsexual surgery.”