Lambda Legal is part of a team that filed a lawsuit today challenging West Virginia’s blanket exclusions of coverage for gender-confirming care in West Virginia’s Medicaid and state employee health insurance plans.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on behalf of Christopher Fain, a Medicaid participant; and Zachary Martell and Brian McNemar, a dependent and state employee, respectively. The suit was filed by Lambda Legal, Nichols Kaster, PLLP, and the Employment Law Center, PLLC.
“Transgender and non-binary West Virginians are denied coverage for essential, and sometimes life-saving, gender-confirming care — while cisgender West Virginians receive coverage for the same kinds of care as a matter of course. The exclusions of gender-confirming care in West Virginia’s state health plans are unconstitutional and discriminatory, and deny transgender and non-binary West Virginians basic dignity, equality, and respect.” said Avatara Smith-Carrington, lead attorney on the case.
Fain v. Crouch is a class action lawsuit challenging blanket exclusions of coverage for gender-confirming care in West Virginia’s state health plans. The blanket exclusions of coverage for care are stated expressly in the health plans offered to Medicaid participants and to state employees. West Virginia’s state health plans serve approximately 564,000 Medicaid participants and 15,000 state employees.
“It is both humiliating and painful to be denied access to coverage for essential healthcare simply because of who I am.” said Christopher Fain, 44, who was born and resides in West Virginia.
Christopher Fain studies nonprofit leadership at Marshall University and works at a clothing store in Huntington. He is enrolled in Medicaid, the nation’s largest healthcare provider for low-income individuals, but the program does not cover his testosterone prescription, forcing Mr. Fain to cover the cost of his care out-of-pocket, creating a stressful and inequitable financial burden. The Medicaid plan’s exclusion of coverage for his care has caused Mr. Fain economic hardship and humiliation.
Lambda Legal has filed similar lawsuits against other states that include blanket exclusions for gender-confirming in state employee health plans. In March, Lambda Legal secured a victory for an Alaska state librarian denied coverage for her gender-confirming care. Also, in March, a U.S. district court judge denied an effort by the state of North Carolina to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of North Carolina state employees and their dependents denied coverage for gender-confirming care.
Lambda Legal offers more information on its website.
— David Taffet
