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Whitmer administration codifies Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery

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Medicaid insurance providers in Michigan cannot refuse benefits for sex reassignment surgeries and hormone replacement medications. The governor’s office recently codified the antidiscrimination language into the state’s Medicaid Provider Manual. It’s already state policy.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says this puts Michigan in line with federal law.

“Our laws have been inconsistent on the books here in Michigan and we thought it was important to clean it up and make sure that our laws reflected what the mandates of the Affordable Care Act are,” she says.

Erin Knott is the executive director of Equality Michigan. She says this is significant.

“I’m hopeful that this will just be one more step in the right direction as it relates to making our transgender friends and neighbors feel that they are an included part of our community and our society,” says Knott.

The state Department of Health and Human Services says there used to be inconsistencies in coverage. Now, Medicaid providers cannot discriminate based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identification.

Before becoming the newest Capitol reporter for the Michigan Public Radio Network, Cheyna Roth was an attorney. She spent her days fighting it out in court as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Ionia County. Eventually, Cheyna took her investigative and interview skills and moved on to journalism. She got her masters at Michigan State University and was a documentary filmmaker, podcaster, and freelance writer before finding her home with NPR. Very soon after joining MPRN, Cheyna started covering the 2016 presidential election, chasing after Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and all their surrogates as they duked it out for Michigan. Cheyna also focuses on the Legislature and criminal justice issues for MPRN. Cheyna is obsessively curious, a passionate storyteller, and an occasional backpacker. Follow her on Twitter at @Cheyna_R
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