Today, in response to the Supreme Court order granting, vacating, and remanding two cases, Kadel and Anderson, about transgender adults’ access to gender-affirming care in North Carolina and West Virginia respectively, the joint legal teams of these cases, Lambda Legal, Advocates for Trans Equality and law firm Nichols Kaster released the following statement:
Kadel and Anderson are two lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s and West Virginia’s policies that denied health insurance coverage for medically necessary gender-affirming care to transgender people, government employees in North Carolina and Medicaid participants in West Virginia.
Today’s Supreme Court order granting, vacating, and remanding Kadel and Anderson means that these cases are sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for reconsideration in light of Skrmetti, a recent Supreme Court decision upholding a Tennessee ban on gender affirming care for minors. The Fourth Circuit will now have to reevaluate the case to consider how to apply Skrmetti to the exclusions in the North Carolina and West Virginia health plans.
For our clients and transgender people in North Carolina and West Virginia, this means another round of legal proceedings to defend the right to nondiscriminatory access to health coverage. Throughout the proceedings of these cases, each lower court recognized that these exclusions are unlawful, and we will continue fighting to ensure that no one is denied medically necessary care because they are transgender.”