Transgender women sue University of Wisconsin for health benefits
Source: Think Progress
Apr 12
A plan to implement the benefits was blocked last year by Gov. Scott Walker.
Two transgender women who are both employed by the University of Wisconsin have filed a federal lawsuit against the school and various state agencies after being denied health insurance coverage for transition-related procedures. The ACLU-led suit follows months of politicking in which the state’s exclusion on trans benefits was almost lifted, but then reinstated.
Technically, the Wisconsin state exclusion on covering procedures for transgender state employees was set to lift on January 1. That’s why Alina Boyden, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, immediately put in her request for gender confirmation surgery the next business day. A month later, however, the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF), one of the defendants in the suit, announced that the exclusion was back in place — effective immediately — and none of the requests like hers would be considered.
Boyden, along with her co-plaintiff Shannon Andrews, are both transgender women employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, making them state employees. Boyden has had to forego her gender confirmation surgery because, without insurance, she simply cannot afford it. This is despite the fact that the surgery has been prescribed for her by her primary care physician as a medically necessary procedure because it will be “the best way for her to keep her testosterone levels at goal.”
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Gov. Scott Walker (R) was instrumental in re-implementing the exclusion that prevents them from receiving care. Back in August, a month after ETF decided to lift it, he ordered the state Department of Justice to urge the agency to reconsider. The letter Walker had sent to ETF argued that protections on the basis of sex should not be interpreted to protect transgender people from discrimination — mirroring the logic of a lawsuit, spearheaded by Texas and later joined by Wisconsin, challenging an Obama administration rule prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity in health care..................
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/wisconsin-transgender-health-suit-7ba7bd9fbfd7
Red state governors such as Walker feel embolden with Trump in the Oval office. Look at NC, Texas, Alabama. Wisconsin is no different!
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