Biden administration restores health protections for gay and transgender people
The Biden administration on Friday announced sweeping new protections for gay and transgender medical patients, barring federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The new rule reverses a policy established by the Trump administration and helps fulfill part of President Biden’s pledge to restore civil rights protections for LGBTQ people that were eliminated by his predecessor.
“Today’s ruling is a huge step toward a more equitable and inclusive health care system for this country, and it means Americans across the country now have a clear way to take action on their rights against discrimination when They go to the doctor, talk with their health plan or connect with health programs run by HHS,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
The rule changes federal policy in an area that has become a political flashpoint, in which more than 20 Republican-led states have banned or restricted gender-affirming care for minors in recent years. granted, and is likely to face legal challenges. Even the history of the regime reflects political sensitivity: it has now taken three different forms under three consecutive presidents.
The Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 established a comprehensive set of civil rights protections in the US healthcare system through Section 1557. It prohibits discrimination against patients on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. “Any health program or activity” that receives federal funding covers a broad portion of the US health system.
In 2016, the Obama administration issued a less detailed version of the rule that the Biden administration finalized on Friday, requiring health providers to provide medically appropriate treatment for transgender patients. Officials at the time argued that the Affordable Care Act’s protections against discrimination included gender identity. Obama’s rule became mired in litigation and the Trump administration refused to enforce it.
Conservative opponents of the rule have argued that the policy could effectively force doctors to perform medical services to which they might object, including on religious grounds. The Trump administration formally narrowed the legal definition of gender discrimination in 2020 to exclude protections for transgender people.
The rule finalized by the Biden administration on Friday says it retains religious exemptions and “does not require or mandate the provision of any particular medical service.”
The rule states, “Section 1557 prohibits discrimination on certain prohibited grounds, and does not interfere with individual clinical judgment about the appropriate course of care for a patient.”
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2020 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s ban on discrimination based on sex also applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Biden administration began to reverse the Trump administration’s policy.
Republican officials continued to work to preserve Trump-era governance. In 2022, after the Biden administration released a proposed version of the rule that was finalized on Friday, a group of Republican attorneys general wrote to Mr. Becerra, suggesting they would if the Department of Health and Human Services follows the policy. Can sue.
The rule proposal received intense scrutiny from advocates and opponents. The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday it had received more than 85,000 comments.
Groups pushing to overturn the Trump-era ruling applauded the Biden administration’s decision on Friday. Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “Countless Americans can now find solace in knowing that they cannot be turned away from health care because of who they are or who they love.”