Healthcare

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Beyond Categorical Exclusions: Access to Transgender Healthcare in State Medicaid Programs

Issues Volume 51, Issue 1

By Samuel Rosh

This Note addresses a major barrier to care that transgender individuals face: “categorical exclusions” barring payment for healthcare related to gender transition in state Medicaid programs, along with policies prohibiting payment for such care when deemed “cosmetic.” It first argues that because the dysphoria and discrimination that transgender individuals experience affect their quality of life and mental well-being, and derive from a discord between their appearance and gender identity, those considerations should be taken into account in the legal determination of medical necessity. As medical studies and the views of major medical associations demonstrate, healthcare for gender transition has been found medically necessary for some individuals to mitigate their gender dysphoria.

This Note then describes the arguments for and against the invalidity of categorical exclusions and other policies that deny transgender individuals access to medically necessary care, focusing on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act as well as more general provisions of federal Medicaid law. It then examines these issues in the context of litigation regarding New York’s limitations on transgender healthcare, which ultimately culminated in a medical necessity standard. Finally, it considers the arguments that Medicaid coverage for gender transition would be too costly, and that requiring states to cover such care would undermine principles of federalism.

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Intersex in 2018: Evaluating the Limitations of Informed Consent in Medical Malpractice Claims as a Vehicle for Gender Justice

Issues Volume 52, Issue 2

By Caroline Lowry

Each year, hundreds of individuals are born intersex, meaning they have genitalia that do not meet the criteria for being exclusively male or female. For decades, doctors have performed corrective genital surgeries on intersex infants in an attempt to make it easier for them to grow up as “normal” boys and girls. In recent years, however, there is a growing consensus that cosmetic genital correctional surgeries are both unnecessary and often harmful to the long-term wellbeing of intersex individuals. Given increasing recognition of negative outcomes over the past decade, critics and activists have called for a moratorium on corrective genital surgeries performed on infants. In 2017, an intersex youth named M. Crawford obtained the first legal settlement ever in the United States challenging infant correctional surgeries under the doctrine of informed consent.

This Note explores the implications of this the landmark legal settlement on efforts to combat nonconsensual genital correction surgery performed on intersex children. In particular, this Note explores the strengths and weaknesses of pursuing litigation based on the informed consent claims raised in M.C.’s lawsuit. This Note also offers alternative methods to combat the practice of performing intersex correctional surgeries.

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