ACLU Files Lawsuit to Challenge Iowa’s Medicaid Ban on Healthcare for Transition Surgery
The ACLU of Iowa filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of transgender Iowan Aiden Vasquez, seeking to have an Iowa law exempting transition-related surgery from coverage under public health insurance systems like Medicaid deemed unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed jointly with the national ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, follows a similar suit filed in 2019 on behalf of Vasquez and another transgender Iowan, Mika Covington, that also asked the courts to end the state’s practice of denying Medicaid coverage for transition-related care.
Vasquez and Covington qualify for Medicaid, the ACLU said in a news release, and their doctors agreed that they need gender-affirming surgery to treat their gender dysphoria. All major medical associations agree that transition-related care, including surgeries, are medically necessary when prescribed by a doctor.
