The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) on Friday announced a proposed rule change that would
roll back an Obama-era policy protecting transgender people from
discrimination in health care.
Roger Severino, director of the HHS
Office for Civil Rights, said that the change would eliminate
language put in place as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also
known as Obamacare) that defined “sex” to include gender
identity.
'When Congress prohibited sex
discrimination, it did so according to the plain meaning of the term,
and we are making our regulations conform,” Severino said in a
statement. “We have concluded in our most recent filing with the
court that discrimination on the basis of sex does not cover gender
identity.”
The rule is currently on hold as a
result of two lawsuits filed by the governors of Republican-led
states. HHS' proposed change would align with those court rulings by
permanently eliminating gender identity as a protected class in the
health law.
The Trump administration had refused to
defend the 2016 rule in those lawsuits, and Friday's announcement was
expected.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, said that the rollback would
put LGBT people “at greater risk of being denied necessary and
appropriate health care.”
“The Trump-Pence administration’s
latest attack threatens to undermine crucial non-discrimination
protections for LGBTQ people provided for under the Affordable Care
Act,” HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy said in a
statement. “The administration puts LGBTQ people at greater risk of
being denied necessary and appropriate health care solely based on
their sexual orientation or gender identity. Everyone deserves access
to medically necessary care and should never be turned away because
of who they are or who they love.”