"Today the ACLU of Iowa and national ACLU LGBT and HIV Project filed a lawsuit to block implementation of a recently passed Iowa law that specifically allows denial of coverage under Medicaid of essential, gender-affirming surgery to transgender Iowans."
"In April, Iowa lawmakers passed legislation that amended the Iowa Civil Rights Act’s protections against discrimination for transgender people in public accommodations that were put into place in 2007. The new law created a new exception to those nondiscrimination protections, specifically allowing Medicaid to deny coverage to transgender Iowans for their medically necessary gender-affirming surgery."
"The new law was passed in response to an Iowa Supreme Court unanimous decision in March that found that an Iowa Medicaid regulation which excluded coverage for medically necessary gender-affirming surgery while providing coverage for all other medically necessary surgery violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act by discriminating on the basis of gender identity. That ruling required that Medicaid must indeed cover such medically necessary surgery for transgender people. The March Supreme Court ruling also determined that public accommodations include Medicaid, which is the government-funded health insurance available to low-income Iowans."
We have links to today's filings.
• Petition for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief: http://bit.ly/2JMxvFz
• Motion for Temporary Injunction: http://bit.ly/2JRYvn1
• Brief in Support of Motion: http://bit.ly/2QBh8w1
See this link: https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/aclu-iowa-files-lawsuit-block-iowa-law-preventing-transgender-iowans-accessing
