A group of federal workers has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging a policy that eliminated coverage for gender-affirming care within federal employee health insurance programs. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, contends in the lawsuit that the administration violated anti-discrimination laws when it enacted the change at the beginning of the year.
The lawsuit states the new policy has led to increased healthcare expenses for thousands of federal employees and has compelled some to seek new employment. The complaint likens the "categorical denial of treatment for those who require continuing gender-affirming care" to withholding insulin from individuals with diabetes.
The Office of Personnel Management issued the policy through a carrier letter last summer, prohibiting insurance companies contracted with major federal employee benefit programs from covering gender-affirming care for individuals of any age. This measure significantly expanded upon a prior prohibition that applied to minors covered by federal employee benefit plans.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are identified as transgender or gender-nonconforming federal employees, along with one federal worker whose child is transgender. One plaintiff, a State Department employee named Gregory Goe, has reportedly been undergoing hormone replacement therapy for eight years to manage gender dysphoria. However, his federal Blue Cross Blue Shield plan has ceased covering the treatment, and his surgeon will not proceed with necessary surgery without insurance coverage, leaving him to face potential out-of-pocket costs exceeding $100,000.
Another plaintiff, a U.S. Postal Service employee named Patrick Poe, lost coverage for his transgender daughter's gender-affirming care. According to the lawsuit, this change necessitates his family depleting their savings to continue the treatment.
An estimated 40,000 transgender individuals are covered by the affected federal benefit plans, according to an analysis by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Approximately one-third of these individuals are federal workers, another third are their dependents, and the remaining are federal retirees and their dependents.
The lawsuit, brought forth by the Human Rights Campaign and the law firm Correia & Puth, seeks an injunction to reverse the administration's policy and reinstate coverage for gender-affirming care. It also requests damages for the plaintiffs and other affected federal workers. Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, stated that the Trump administration had "weaponized" healthcare coverage to discriminate against transgender workers and their families, calling the policy "odious" and the latest in a pattern of targeting transgender individuals.