Another Victory

We need all that we can get, this time it is for healthcare.

A judge has struck down Iowa's Medicaid ban on transgender transition-related care.
Here's why.
The Des Moines Register
By Courtney Crowder
June 8, 2018

Dr. Nicole Nisly spent the last six months telling her transgender patients to wait and see what happens.

Two transgender women had filed a lawsuit challenging Iowa's blanket Medicaid ban on transition-related care after years of dealing with denials and headaches regarding their health coverage.

Just hang on, Nisly told patient after patient, and a judge will decide if the right to transition-related care deemed medically necessary should override the state's ban.

As of Thursday, the wait was over.

Chief District Judge Arthur Gamble ruled in favor of Carol Ann Beal of northwest Iowa and EerieAnna Good of the Quad Cities, agreeing that the state's ban violated both the Iowa Civil Rights Act and the state constitution.

The judge ordered the Department of Human Services to approve the women's requests for coverage.
[…]
The question of the "medical necessity" of many of these procedures often lies at the heart of conversations about transition-related care.

When prescribed by a doctor, all forms of transition-care, including surgeries, are recommended by most professional medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

Of course they now have to fight all the roadblocks that will be thrown in their way. Here in Connecticut the insurance companies have become experts in all the ways of delaying coverage.