West Virginia Asks Supreme Court to Block Medicaid Funds for Transgender Surgery

West Virginia is fighting for its right not to pay for elective gender-altering surgeries under its Medicaid program, and state officials have brought their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Just one single sex-reassignment surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars—taxpayers should not be required to pay for these surgeries under Medicaid,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a statement. Mr. Morrisey has petitioned the Supreme Court to take up a case that West Virginia lost on appeal over its decision to exclude coverage for certain types of transgender medical procedures. Decades ago, West Virginia decided to limit Medicaid coverage for certain medical services, including the use of what it calls “transsexual surgeries” to treat gender dysphoria, in a bid to control spiraling Medicaid costs. However, it continued to cover the same type of surgeries for non-gender dysphoria diagnoses, such as mastectomies to treat breast cancer....