Trump revokes Obama's transgender healthcare protections, expert says 'time for states to do the right thing'
On June 12, the Donald Trump administration finalized a rule that would roll back protections from discrimination of transgender patients through the Affordable Care Act amid the coronavirus pandemic. This announcement comes on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse club shooting when Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
According to the new version of the policy, the Department of Health and Human Services will be "returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology". "HHS respects the dignity of every human being, and as we have shown in our response to the pandemic, we vigorously protect and enforce the civil rights of all to the fullest extent permitted by our laws as passed by Congress," said Roger Severino, who directs the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, in a written statement announcing that the HHS rule had become final. The rule is set to go into effect by mid-August.
The rule focuses on the nondiscrimination protections in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which established that it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities". In 2016, the Obama administration rule explained that protections regarding "sex" encompass those based on gender identity, which was defined as "male, female, neither or a combination of male and female".
The HHS Office under the Trump administration first proposed the new rule on June 19, with Severino saying, "We're going back to the plain meaning of those terms, which is based on biological sex."
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Action at the National Center for Transgender Equality, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) that the new rule amounts to telling an insurance provider or a hospital that they could "kick someone to the curb" or can refuse to cover them "just because they happen to be transgender". The new rule also makes changes to gender-based discrimination beyond Section 1557 of the ACA — it affects regulations pertaining to access to health insurance, for example, including cost-sharing, health plan marketing and benefits. The rule could also mean that those seeking an abortion could be denied care if performing the procedure violates the provider's moral or religious beliefs.
Heng-Lehtinen told MEAWW that the National Center for Transgender Equality was working to ensure that states, insurance and medical providers keep the protections the transgender people already have. He said, "Insurance companies are realizing that transition-related healthcare is healthcare, so they should still do the right thing." He added, "It's really important to know that just because the Trump administration is trying to open the door to discrimination, it doesn't mean other people have to walk through that door. Everyone else can still do the right thing." Heng-Lehtinen suggests that people who live in the 20 states that have protections from discrimination to contact their elected officials, state representatives, state senators and ask them to keep the protections in place. He said, "This is the time for the states to step up when the federal government has failed and the same thing goes for insurance providers."