HEALTH
HHS Reg Broadens Discriminatory Opt-Outs
Trump administration continues rightward shift at federal health agency
BY MATT TRACY
Drawing immediate and widespread
condemnation, the Trump administration
on November 1 proposed
a new rule giving recipients of Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS)
funding — including adoption and foster care
agencies — the ability to discriminate on the
basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,
and religion.
The rule, which would unravel President Barack
Obama’s 2016 rule banning recipients of
HHS funding from discrimination, marks the
latest development in a visible rightward shift
at HHS under the Trump administration. The
move came roughly six months after HHS unveiled
a proposal that erased Obamacare rules
protecting individuals on the basis gender identity
and sexual orientation and nine months
after the agency granted taxpayer-funded foster
care agencies in South Carolina with an exemption
from HHS nondiscrimination rules .
The rule was unveiled on a Friday afternoon,
but that didn’t stop LGBTQ groups, progressive
religious organizations, advocates for seniors,
and others from sounding alarms about the anticipated
effects of the rule. Governor Andrew
Cuomo of New York has vowed to challenge the
rule in courts.
THE WHITE HOUSE/ JOYCE N. BOGHOSIA
President Donald Trump continues to chip away at nondiscrimination
protections with yet another rollback of Obama era guidelines.
If fi nalized, the rule would apply broadly, affecting
foster care agencies, HIV prevention services,
senior care offerings, and other recipients
of federal funding from HHS.
HHS claimed in a November 1 statement that
the rule realigns the agency in accordance with
the Constitution, federal statutes, and Supreme
Court decisions. The administration contends
that those precedents and laws prevent the government
from infringing on religious freedom,
but said nothing about the way in which the
latest rule impacts LGBTQ Americans.
The Coalition for Homeless Youth, which is
dedicated to assisting runaway and homeless
youth and consists of dozens of New York-based
member organizations ranging from the Ali
Forney Center to the Hetrick-Martin Institute,
pointed to the high percentage of homeless LGBTQ
youth as it blasted the most recent proposed
rule.
“Today’s rule sent a clear message that
this administration doesn’t care about LGBT
youth’s well-being,” Jamie Powlovich, the coalition’s
executive director, said. “This is not
okay.”
Advocacy and Services for LGBT Elders
(SAGE), an organization dedicated to serving
the needs of queer seniors, noted in a written
statement that the rule targets programs benefi
tting seniors and warned that “their access
to their programs is at risk.”
“This latest announcement from the Trump
administration is yet another salvo in the war
the administration has conducted against the
most basic rights of LGBT people,” SAGE said.
“In this year that marks the 50th anniversary
of the Stonewall uprising, enough is enough.
The federal government should be championing
non-discrimination protections, not advancing
discrimination.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the Na-
➤ HEALTHCARE OPT-OUTS, continued on p.7
Most Medicaid Recipients Lack Gender-Affi rming Care
Findings coincide with court ruling gutting Obamacare trans health protections
BY MATT TRACY
Less than half of the estimated 152,000
transgender Americans who are enrolled
in Medicaid live in states that
provide access to comprehensive gender
affi rming care, according to a new report
published by the Williams Institute at UCLA .
Just 69,000 of existing trans Medicaid recipients
have clear access to comprehensive care
in accordance with their state’s laws or court
rulings, according to the October report, while
51,000 trans Medicaid benefi ciaries are in
states that have ambiguous laws surrounding
such care, and 32,000 are in states that explicitly
ban access to it. The report does not state
whether gender non-binary individuals were included
in the data.
“This patchwork of protections creates uncertainty
for transgender people who are enrolled
in Medicaid,” said the report’s co-author, Christy
Mallory, who serves as the Williams Institute’s
director of state policy and education initiatives.
“Absent further policy changes in states
that have bans or lack clear language addressing
coverage, many transgender people in the
US will continue to face obstacles when seeking
health care just because of where they live.”
The numbers coincide with ongoing attacks
on the health needs of LGBTQ people during
the retrograde Trump era. Just three years ago,
the state-by-state disparities appeared to be on
their way out when the Obama administration’s
Department of Health and Human Services
banned Medicaid programs, under the terms
of the Affordable Care Act, from excluding coverage
of gender-affi rming care. Yet, the Trump
administration has utilized proposed rules and
employed other mechanisms to unravel those
policies. Most recently, a federal court ruling vacated
Obamacare protections for trans patients
in the midst of a legal battle led by Franciscan
Health, formerly known as Franciscan Alliance,
a group of 14 facilities in Indiana and Illinois,
which has argued that gender-affi rming care
violates the religious beliefs of this Catholicaffi
liated institution.
The sobering statistics present disparities
that have been highlighted by advocates who
have called on Congress to pass the Equality
Act. In more than half the states, it is legal to
discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation
and gender identity.
The 18 states that have explicit coverage of
gender-affi rming care under their Medicaid programs,
according to the report, are California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana,
➤ TRANS CARE ACCESS, continued on p.7
November 7 - November 20, 6 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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