WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge from a group of government employees affected by a new policy taking effect Thursday that excludes coverage of gender-affirming services in federal health insurance programs.
The complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of employees by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to the Office of Personnel Management's August announcement that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of a person's sexual characteristics through medical intervention” in health insurance programs for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers.
The complaint alleges that denying coverage for gender-affirming care constitutes sex discrimination and asks HR to rescind the policy.
“This policy is not about cost or concern—it is about pushing transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children and dependents out of the federal workforce,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelly Robinson said in a statement announcing the move.
The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, includes testimony from four current federal employees at the State Department, Health and Human Services and the Postal Service who would be directly impacted by the elimination of coverage.
For example, a Postal Service employee has a daughter whose doctors recommended she take puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy to treat diagnosed gender dysphoria, which would not be covered under OPM's new policy, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes that the workers are suing on behalf of themselves and “a class of similarly situated federal employees.”
The Trump administration has taken other steps to restrict care for transgender Americans, especially minors. In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released proposals that would block gender-affirming aid to minors, including a policy prohibiting Medicare and Medicaid money from being given to hospitals that provide such care to children.
Top Trump officials such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have called gender-affirming care for minors an “abuse of office.” But such restrictions run counter to recommendations from major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
