Florida officials will face legal challenges to their health care policies on the same day next week, with a hearing over the state's transgender care ban and a lawsuit seeking Medicaid eligibility for thousands of Floridians. Become.
In Tallahassee, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle will preside over a trial starting next Wednesday over a state law that bars Medicaid coverage of common medical treatments for transgender adults and gender-affirming therapy for transgender minors. do.
On the same day, a hearing will be held in Jacksonville on a preliminary injunction seeking to restore compensation to those who were not covered. 822,000 Floridians Those who have lost Medicaid since Florida began considering whether to continue eligibility following the end of continued coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency. People.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and executives from the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine are named defendants in a lawsuit challenging the ban on transgender care.The restrictions became law in May after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed them into law. SB254.
Plaintiffs argue that the law violates transgender people's right to equal protection by limiting the medical care that doctors can recommend to treat gender dysphoria. In June, Hinkle ruled in favor of the transgender minor, allowing him to continue treatment, but not halting enforcement of the law against adults. In that September ruling, Hinkle wrote that the adult plaintiffs had no certainty that they would suffer unduly if the law remained in effect.
In Jacksonville, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard will preside over a lawsuit against leaders of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families over their handling of Medicaid eligibility screening.
A preliminary injunction hearing that could restore coverage to people who have been removed from Medicaid since March was originally scheduled for Dec. 5, according to court records, but a medical emergency involving an attorney It had to be postponed to next week.
of complaint The lawsuit, filed in August by the Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program, alleges the agencies violated the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause and Medicaid law by failing to provide adequate advance notice of eligibility reviews. claims.
George Washington University public health policy experts released an analysis of Florida's process on Dec. 1, predicting more than 250,000 Floridians will be uninsured by the time the state completes the renewal process early next year. He said it is possible.
