XPost: alt.fan.states.west-virginia, alt.transgendered, alt.soci   
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   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   West Virginia will take its fight over whether its Medicaid program must   
   cover gender-affirming surgeries to the Supreme Court, the state’s   
   Republican attorney general announced Thursday.   
      
   “Once again, the state of West Virginia is going 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’s 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 antidiscrimination laws.   
      
   A federal judge in 2022 ordered the state to cover the procedures, a   
   decision the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in April. In the   
   4th Circuit ruling, Judge Roger Gregory, an appointee of 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 Act.   
      
   Morrisey and other state officials maintain West Virginia’s policy barring   
   coverage of gender-affirming surgeries reflects cost concerns, not an   
   antitransgender animus.   
      
   “We’re not a rich state. We can’t afford to do everything, and that’s one   
   of the challenges that we have with this mandate. There’s only so much   
   money to go around, and spending money on some treatments necessarily   
   takes it away from others,” Morrisey, who is running for governor of the   
   state, said Thursday.   
      
   “Our state’s Medicaid program made a reasonable decision to reserve scarce   
   funding for medically necessary treatments, not elective surgeries,” he   
   said, adding that the decision was made to ensure adequate resources for   
   people with heart disease, diabetes and other medical conditions.   
      
   Major medical organizations argue gender-affirming care is medically   
   necessary, though not every trans person chooses to transition medically   
   or has 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 “deeply dehumanizing” and needlessly restricts access to   
   essential health care.   
      
   Morrisey, whose run for governor is endorsed by former President Trump,   
   continues to veer to the right on transgender issues, often referring to   
   transgender women as “men” and capitalizing on misinformation surrounding   
   gender-affirming health care 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’s interpreting a major federal law, the Medicaid Act, and it   
   presents a nationally important constitutional question: whether Medicaid   
   or any state-related insurance program must cover all transgender care,”   
   Morrisey said Thursday.   
      
   The request is West Virginia’s third Supreme Court filing over the past   
   month. The state is also asking the court to review a lower court ruling   
   preventing it from enforcing a 2021 law that bars transgender student-   
   athletes from competing in sports and to block the Environmental   
   Protection Agency’s new power plant rules.   
      
   The Supreme Court last year rejected a request by Morrisey to allow the   
   state to enforce its trans athlete ban, though Justices Samuel Alito and   
   Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case.   
      
   https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4793516-west-virginia-   
   supreme-court-medicaid-gender-affirming-surgery/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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