Three Georgians have filed a lawsuit saying the State Health Benefit Plan is denying care to transgender patients.
Two transgender men — Micha Rich, an accountant at the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and Benjamin Johnson, a media clerk at a Bibb County elementary school — and an unnamed transgender young adult dependent son of an unnamed Division of Family and Children’s Services employee say they have been denied health care from the state health plan.
Rich and Johnson have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the medical diagnosis for many transgender people, which is treated by procedures such as plastic surgery and hormone therapy.
Johnson, who has worked for the Bibb County School District for two years, said his claim was denied after he got plastic surgery in 2021 as part of his transition. The surgery cost about $14,000, he said.
“I didn’t know when I signed up for my plan that it had a transgender exclusion,” he said. “It’s just not right that I’m being discriminated against. And I’m not a unique case. It’s not about just me, it’s to help others like me.”
The attorney general’s office, which represents the state in legal matters, declined to comment.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of the employees and the adult dependent in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.
David Brown, legal director for the fund, said the case is about equality.
“This is about transgender people who pay the same health care premiums as everybody else in turn not getting the same care as all other employees,” Brown said. “The health care that they cover for everyone else, they then take away when the person who needs it is transgender. What we want is for them to end the exclusion and negotiate a settlement.”
Doctors can prescribe testosterone for various reasons, such as to address issues with libido in men or hot flashes in women. But, Brown said, since Johnson’s testosterone prescription is to aid his transition, his health care plan won’t cover it.
“The exclusion doesn’t apply to any other kind of care,” Brown said. “Folks who need any kind of care for any other reason, they can get it, but if you need it because you’re transgender, they’re going to take that care away from you.”
This is at least the third time a state health plan has been challenged due to its transgender treatment exclusion. The University System of Georgia settled a 2018 lawsuit over its exclusion of treatment for transgender patients. And earlier this year, the state settled a lawsuit that denied patients on Georgia’s Medicaid plan - the public health program that provides care to the poor and disabled - transgender treatment. In both settlements, the health care programs removed the transgender treatment exclusion.
“This is a choice for the State Health Benefit Plan to discriminate,” Brown said. “The state has been forced to (remove the exclusion) in two separate settlements. It’s baffling and, frankly, appalling that they haven’t just removed the exclusion from all of the state’s plans.”
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