NC health plan resumes coverage of transgender surgeries

The North Carolina state employee health plan will resume coverage of gender-affirming treatments for transgender people, complying with a June federal court ruling that declared the refusal of coverage unconstitutional. State Treasurer Dale Folwell and the State Health Plan Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that they have to reinstate coverage of “medically necessary services” –- including hormone replacement therapy and surgeries –- which the health plan had provided for a single year in 2017. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs ruled in June that the state health plan unlawfully discriminates against transgender people, violating both the equal protection clause of the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act on the basis of sex.