NC Health Plan to Cover Transgender Healthcare

Graphic by Aminah Jenkins

On June 10, Federal Judge Loretta Biggs ruled that the North Carolina State Health Plan (NCSHP) unlawfully discriminated against transgender people by excluding services such as hormone therapy, gender dysphoria therapy and surgeries. Judge Biggs ruled that this refusal of coverage and treatment violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act on the basis of sex, according to The Associated Press.

Taxpayers support the NCSHP in order to offer state employees and retirees full medical and pharmacy benefits. According to the NC Office of Human Resources, “The mission of the Plan is to improve the health and health care of North Carolina teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents in a financially sustainable manner, thereby serving as a model to the people of North Carolina for improving their health and well-being.” The plan contracts with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

The NCSHP covers approximately 750,000 current and former state employees and their dependents and is overseen by State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s office. The plan provided transgender treatment up until 2017 when this coverage was halted. This led to the lawsuit Kadel v. Folwell, which was filed by Lambada Legal and the Transgender Legal Defense Fund on behalf of several state employees and retirees who were refused medically necessary, gender-affirming care.

Treasurer Folwell stated that he hoped that before Judge Biggs made a decision, she “would trust the people of North Carolina to have a jury trial on whether taxpayers should be paying for sexual transition operations.” Judge Biggs responded with the plaintiff's claims that treatments “can be medically necessary to treat gender dysphoria in some cases” and that the “defendants' belief that gender-affirming care is ineffective and unnecessary is simply not supported by the record.”

This is all the information that has been released on this verdict as of June 22, 2022. No further action has been taken at this time. To learn more about fighting against transgender inequality, click here or here.

By Evelyn Summers, Copy Editor