WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is facing a new legal complaint from a group of government employees who are affected by a new policy that takes effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.
The complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of employees by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement by the Office of Personnel Management that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex characteristics through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers.
The complaint argues that the denial of gender-affirming care coverage is discrimination based on sex and asks the personnel office to rescind the policy.
“This policy isn’t about cost or care — it’s about kicking transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children and dependents out of the federal workforce,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said in a statement announcing the move.
The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, includes testimony from four current federal workers at the Department of State, Health and Human Services and the Postal Service who would be directly affected by the elimination of coverage.
For example, the Postal Service employee has a daughter whose doctors recommended she take puberty blockers and potentially hormone replacement therapy for her diagnosed gender dysphoria, which would not be covered under OPM’s new policy, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes that the workers are making the request on behalf of themselves and on behalf of “a class of similarly situated federal employees.”
The Trump administration has taken other steps to restrict care for transgender Americans, particularly minors. In December, the US Department of Health and Human Services released proposals to block gender-affirming care to minors, including a policy that would bar Medicare and Medicaid dollars to hospitals that provide such care to children.
Senior Trump officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., call gender-affirming care “malpractice” for minors. But such restrictions go against recommendations from major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.