Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program today issued the following statement in response to the adoption of an anti-transgender healthcare rule by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which oversees Florida’s Medicaid Program, that will deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults:
“Ignoring thousands of public comments and expert testimony, Florida’s AHCA has finalized a rule that will deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults. This discriminatory and medically unsound rule will take effect on August 21, 2022, putting transgender people in jeopardy of losing access to critical gender-affirming health care services.
“AHCA’s actions, at the behest of Governor DeSantis and his political appointees, are morally and legally wrong as well as medically and scientifically unsound. This rule represents a dangerous escalation in Governor DeSantis’s political zeal to persecute LGBTQ+ people in Florida, and particularly transgender youth. Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program denounce Florida’s cruel effort to strip transgender Floridians on Medicaid of the ability to access essential, medically necessary, and often lifesaving medical care.
We will fight this rule and defend the rights of transgender people in Florida in whatever forum necessary to protect their rights to access health care coverage that is readily available to other participants in Florida’s Medicaid program. The lives, health, and wellbeing of transgender Floridians are at stake, and we stand ready to vindicate their rights.
“Any transgender person, who is a Medicaid participant in Florida and is at risk of losing Medicaid coverage for their gender-affirming health care should:
Share their story at www.protectFLtranshealth.org or:
Reach out to:
Lambda Legal’s Help Desk https://www.lambdalegal.org/helpdesk or:
Southern Legal Counsel at simone.chriss@southernlegal.org or;
Florida Health Justice Project at debriere@floridahealthjustice.org.”