West Virginia is asking the US Supreme Court to consider transgender surgery Medicaid coverage case

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review rulings that found the state’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory, Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Thursday.

In April, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-6 in the case involving coverage of gender-affirming surgery by West Virginia Medicaid, finding that the “coverage exclusions facially discriminate based on sex and gender identity,” according to a majority opinion penned by Judge Roger Gregory.

The state of West Virginia had argued that officials in states with limited resources should have discretion to utilize those resources as they see fit to meet the needs of the population. West Virginia is one of the U.S. states with the most people living under the poverty line and the worst health outcomes.

“We’re not a rich state — we can’t afford to do everything,” Morrisey said Thursday during a live-streamed briefing with press. “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.”

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