Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Administration Rolls Back Obama-Era Health Care Protections For Transgender Patients
Modern Healthcare: HHS Throws Out Obama-Era Rule Against Gender Discrimination
The Trump administration Friday overturned an Obama-era rule that banned discrimination against patients based on gender identity. The regulation from the HHS' Office for Civil Rights drops protections based on gender identity from the ACA's chief anti-discrimination provision. OCR similarly ended nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people by modifying other CMS rules, including standards for qualified health plans and the ACA marketplaces, even though they're not related to and predate the OCR rule. When the agency proposed the changes, it expected half of all covered entities to ditch their gender and sexual-orientation nondiscrimination policies as a result. (Brady, 6/12)
The Associated Press: Trump Administration Revokes Transgender Health Protection
The Department of Health and Human Services said it will enforce sex discrimination protections “according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.” This rewrites an Obama-era regulation that sought a broader understanding shaped by a person’s internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination. LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex-reassignment treatment, and even for transgender people who need care for common illnesses such as diabetes or heart problems. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Issues Rule To Roll Back Transgender Protections In The Affordable Care Act
The rule would affect protections for the 1.4 million transgender adults and 150,000 transgender teenagers ages 13 to 17 in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute, a research group at the University of California School of Law in Los Angeles that studies sexual-orientation and gender-identity policy. Trump administration officials have said that the policy is being changed to more closely hew to the ACA text, which doesn’t explicitly mention gender identity as a protected category in health care. The provision has spurred a host of lawsuits from states and religious plaintiffs that claimed the expanded protections are unlawful. (Armour, 6/12)
The New York Times: Health Care Advocates Push Back Against Trump’s Erasure Of Transgender Rights
Health advocates representing American hospitals, medical groups, insurers and civil rights associations condemned the Trump administration on Saturday for rolling back protections for transgender patients, and for doing so amid a global pandemic. The new rule, long sought by conservatives and the religious right, narrows the legal definition of sex discrimination in the Affordable Care Act so that it omits protection for transgender people. It also opens the door for health care providers to refuse to treat patients who have had abortions. (Kaplan, 6/13)
Reuters: U.S. Health Agency Reverses Obamacare Transgender Protections
LGBTQ rights groups, Democratic lawmakers and Democratic-controlled states have decried efforts under the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to erode protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer citizens. One group said it planned to sue the administration over the new rule. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the decision a “shocking attack on the health and well-being of countless vulnerable communities, including women, LGBTQ individuals, and people of color.” (6/12)
The Washington Post: Trump Administration Erases Non-Discrimination Protections For Transgender People In Health Care
Under President Barack Obama, the concept of gender in many areas of the law had been broadened beyond biological sex to encompass the myriad identities that different Americans embrace. Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, has argued that when members of Congress who passed the 2010 Affordable Care Act prohibited providers receiving federal funding from discrimination on the basis of sex, they meant “the plain meaning of the term.” (Cha, 6/12)
Politico: Trump Finalizes Rollback Of LGBTQ Patient Protections
Roger Severino, head of the HHS civil rights office, said the timing of the rule's release is "purely coincidental." He also disputed that the new rules would endanger patients during the pandemic. “Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve gone into overdrive in terms of our civil rights enforcement, and that will not be affected,” he said, citing recent efforts to enforce disability rights protections and other civil rights. “Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and accordance with the law.” (Diamond, 6/12)
The Hill: Biden: 'Unconscionable' For Trump To Roll Back LGBTQ Protections
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday slammed the Trump administration’s decision to roll back LGBTQ protections in the Affordable Care Act, calling the move “unconscionable.” “This action is unconscionable — and to do so during Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack at the Pulse Nightclub that claimed 49 lives, many of them members of the LGBTQ+ community, is despicable,” the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a statement. (Gstalter, 6/13)
