The Department of Veterans Affairs has reinstated gender affirming medical coverage for a transgender veteran who sued them for refusing to cover her hormone replacement therapy.
The VA announced in March that it would no longer cover gender affirming care for trans servicemembers or vets, but that people who were already receiving the medicine would continue to.
Army veteran Jane Doe was one of the people who had been getting the meds for years. WSHU has granted her anonymity due to her fear of retaliation from the Defense Department.
When she went to refill her prescription, Doe’s pharmacy told her her insurance no longer paid for her medication. She appealed to the Board of Veterans Appeals, but didn't hear back, so she sued the VA. Within a month of the lawsuit, the VA acknowledged it had made a mistake in removing Doe’s coverage.
“Having dealt with government as closely as I have over so many years in the military, I never expected them to just so quickly be like, ‘Yes, we were wrong,’ and walk away and grant the request,” Doe said.
Hillary Browning from the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School is a recent law graduate and on Doe’s legal team. She said systemic safeguards have to be put in place to keep this from happening again.
“Our hope is that they sort of learn their lesson, and if they didn't learn their lesson, they see that there are veterans out there who are willing to hold them to the policies that they've put in place,” Browning said.
Doe and her legal team say they don’t know why the decision was made so fast. But Doe said it shows that the uphill battle was worth it.
“Just because the government is a Goliath doesn't mean that David doesn't win sometimes.”
The VA was invited to participate in this story, but the request was declined.
