Wisconsin Judge Rules State Must Pay For Gender Reassignment Surgeries

On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the state of Wisconsin to pay for gender reassignment surgeries for two transgender Medicaid recipients. Those recipients, Cody Flack and Sara Ann Makenzie, sued the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which administers Medicaid, and its secretary, Linda Seemeyer, claiming they unlawfully denied Medicaid coverage for necessary transgender medical treatments,

U.S. District Judge William Conley stated, “The likelihood of ongoing, irreparable harm facing these two individual plaintiffs outweighs any marginal impacts on the defendants’ stated concerns regarding public health or limiting costs.