The state’s Group Insurance Board has approved health insurance coverage for gender-confirmation surgery for transgender state employees, effective January 1, 2019. We are pleased that the state of Wisconsin has recognized that denying transgender people access to necessary health care has no basis in medical science.

The board's decision is an important step in the right direction and we commend them for allowing access to care that the medical community agrees is necessary. However, the decision does not undo the harm the exclusion has already caused to some transgender employees, who have been unable to receive the care they need for years or have had to undertake severe financial burdens to obtain it.