A federal appeals court issued a groundbreaking ruling last night

ensuring that gender-affirming surgery is covered by state-run health insurance

programs. Stephanie Sigh has that report.

Ahmed, this decision centered around two lawsuits, with trans people in West Virginia and North Carolina

suing to secure insurance coverage for gender affirming care, such as hormone therapy and surgery.

The federal appellate court in Richmond split 8 to 6 ordered that the state health care

plans, quote,

reinstate coverage for medically necessary services

for the treatment of gender dysphoria.

The American Medical Association and the American Academy

of Pediatrics wrote briefs in support of the

transplantives. It is a win for the trans community but it may not be the final

word on the issue. For more on all of this, I'm joined by NPR,

Selina Simmons-Duffin, who covers health policy for NPR.

Salina, it's good to see you on the news hour.

So as you know, there are numerous court cases around the country

about transgender rights and access to gender affirming care how significant was

this ruling and what are the big takeaways to you? I think this is a really significant ruling.

The Fourth Circuit's majority opinion was really strong

and called discrimination against trans patients on these plans to be quote obviously discriminatory.

I think that the big takeaway is that insurers are not going to be able to say that they're going

to cover this care for some patients with some

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