CNA Staff, May 7, 2024 / 16:00 pm
The attorney general of Florida on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against the Biden administration over new federal rules requiring insurers to cover gender-based surgeries and medical procedures.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, is meant to halt the White House’s attempt to “force the state to pay for puberty blockers and gender-transition surgery for children,” Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a press release.
The administration’s recently promulgated rule, filed in the Federal Register on Monday and set to go into effect in July, amends the nondiscrimination clause in Section 1557 of the federal Affordable Care Act by expanding the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity,” among other new additions.
The change means that any insurer or physician receiving federal financial assistance must cover or provide sex-reassignment surgeries and therapies on the grounds that refusal to do so would constitute discrimination based on sex.