Today, Gov. Pritzker fulfilled a campaign promise and announced that Illinois Medicaid will cover gender-affirming health care services for transgender and gender-nonconforming people!
Read the official statement here.
For many years, Illinois Medicaid had likely violated the state’s own Human Rights Act by banning Medicaid coverage for medically-necessary, gender-affirming care. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) and advocates have pushed Medicaid to provide coverage for medical treatment that transgender and gender-nonconforming people need to thrive. We are extremely grateful to Gov. Pritzker for taking action on this issue.
“Today, Illinois took another critical step toward treating transgender people with dignity and respect by recognizing that their health care needs must be affirmed and fulfilled,” said John Peller, president/CEO of AFC. “Low-income trans Illinoisans — some of the most vulnerable people in the state — will finally be able to get the medically-necessary health care services that are their right.”
AFC thanks partners Howard Brown Health, the ACLU of Illinois, Equality Illinois, the TransLegal program at Chicago House and Social Service Agency, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Center for Transgender Equality for their leadership and advocacy to ensure that transgender people and gender-nonconforming folks have access to lifesaving and medically-necessary treatment.
