U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough (Screen capture/YouTube)
A group of transgender veterans on Jan. 25 sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to compel the agency to cover gender-affirming surgeries, following verbal assurances that it would begin providing these services.
The lawsuit, filed by the Transgender American Veterans Association, aims to reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes that can result from lack of access to medically necessary health care interventions for people with gender dysphoria.
This includes suicides, depression and psychological distress.
In its complaint before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, the group argued gender-affirming surgeries are often prohibitively expensive when administered by private doctors.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough in 2021 said the agency was engaged in a rule making process to provide these services to trans veterans such that they can “go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side.”
The process, he said, would take a few years to “develop capacity to meet the surgical needs.”
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