Settlement with state means Georgia Medicaid to include gender-affirming surgery

A doctor and nurse confer inside a room at Northside Hospital in Cumming, Ga., near Atlanta, on Jan. 31, 2018. In 2021, two Georgia transgender women who receive Medicaid health insurance sued the Georgia Department of Community Health after they were denied surgery to treat gender dysphoria. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)

Transgender Georgians who receive Medicaid health insurance could soon be able to access gender-affirming surgical care in the state. This change is the result of a court settlement between the state and attorneys representing two transgender women.

In their suit, the women said they were denied surgery to treat gender dysphoria — distress caused by a gender identity different from the sex assigned at birth — and that it was unconstitutional.

Under the settlement with attorneys from the law firm of King and Spalding, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Community Health has agreed to provide gender-affirming surgery through Medicaid when it’s deemed medically necessary, and to adopt clinical guidelines for gender dysphoria treatment.