Sgt. Anna Lange filed a lawsuit against the county where she works in Georgia for refusing to allow her health insurance plan to cover gender-affirmation surgery. Audra Melton for NPR
NPR reports on our client Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund’s federal health care discrimination lawsuit against Houston County, Georgia. The case stems from the county’s decision to exclude medically-necessary transgender-related health care from its employee health plan. The suit is on behalf of Anna Lange, a Houston County Sheriff’s Deputy who has been on the job for 13-years. The county’s policy violates both the Constitutions of the United States and Georgia, and federal anti-discrimination laws.
“Anna Lange says she merely wants the same protections everyone else has. The co-workers with whom she shares a health plan might have used ‘something on the policy that I may never use or need, but it’s covered,’ she says. “When it’s finally something that I need that one of my co-workers will probably never use or need, mine’s excluded. And that’s just not fair.'”