Trial Challenging Florida’s Ban on Medicaid Coverage for Gender-Affirming Medical Care for Transgender Floridians Comes to a Close

The legal advocates – Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program, together with the international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP—issued the following joint statement:  

“Over the past two weeks, we presented compelling evidence demonstrating that gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents and adults is safe, effective, and not experimental. The Court heard from a number of medical and scientific experts, from psychiatrists and endocrinologists to clinical researchers and neuroscientists, who testified about the safety, efficacy and necessity of gender-affirming medical treatment. More importantly, the Court heard from transgender Floridians and the parents of transgender adolescents in Florida. Finally, we exposed the fact that Florida’s discriminatory actions and AHCA’s policy are motivated by political stances rather than science or medicine.

Medicaid coverage is indispensable to the access to necessary medical care of thousands of transgender Floridians, including those who are low income or have disabilities. Unfortunately, over the past year, Florida officials have repeatedly adopted laws and policies that endanger the health and wellbeing of transgender Floridians and single out LGBTQ+ people and their parents, health care providers, and allies for discrimination and state-sanctioned persecution.  

Through this trial, we have demonstrated how two of Florida’s recently adopted laws and policies, specifically, those targeting transgender Medicaid beneficiaries in Florida like AHCA’s rule and SB 254, are unlawful and unconstitutional. We are thankful that the Court has given us the opportunity to make our case and look forward to its decision.”

Background 

The lawsuit, Dekker, et al., v. Weida, et al., was filed in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida against the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and AHCA’s Secretary Jason Weida, on behalf of four plaintiffs: August Dekker (he/him) and Brit Rothstein (he/him), as well as two minors identified under pseudonyms Susan Doe (represented by her parents Jane and John Doe) and K.F. (represented by his mother, Jade Ladue). 

On August 21, 2022, AHCA, which oversees Florida’s Medicaid Program, adopted a discriminatory rule that denies Medicaid coverage for, and therefore access to, necessary and evidence-based medical care for thousands of transgender people in Florida, notwithstanding that this is medical care that has long been covered by Florida Medicaid, and has been proven over decades to be safe and effective. On May 17, 2023, during the pendency of the trial in this case, Governor DeSantis signed SB 254 into law, which, among other things, prohibits the expenditure of state funds for the provision or coverage of gender-affirming care. The next day the case was amended to include a challenge to SB 254’s Section 3 using the same evidence developed at trial.  

Read more about Dekker, et al. V. Weida, et al., here: Dekker, et al., v. Weida, et al. - Lambda Legal    

The Pillsbury team includes Litigation partners Jennifer Altman and Shani Rivaux, senior associate William Miller, associates Joe Little and Gary Shaw and practice section assistant Ana González.

Click here to see the original press release.

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