Biden Administration To Implement LGBT Nondiscrimination Protections In Health Care

The Biden administration on Monday announced that it would enforce LGBT nondiscrimination protections in health care.

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) said that it would begin enforcing a section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. The Supreme Court in Bostock found that anti-LGBT discrimination is a form of sex discrimination.

The high court has “made clear that people have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex and receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” Becerra said. “It is the position of the Department of Health and Human Services that everyone – including LGBTQ people – should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.”

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to implement the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock.

The Trump administration had rescinded transgender protections in health care implemented under former President Barack Obama, ignoring the high court's ruling.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, applauded the policy change.

“LGBTQ people undeniably deserve access to the health care they need, and the Biden administration’s decision to enforce these non-discrimination protections will ensure no hospitals, clinics, or other federally-funded health care program can deny someone care simply because of who they are,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s reprehensible efforts to blatantly discriminate against LGBTQ people – particularly transgender and non-binary people – were harmful and ignorant, which is why the Human Rights Campaign successfully sued and obtained a preliminary injunction that blocked the rule’s elimination of protections for sexual orientation and gender identity from taking effect last year. We applaud the Biden administration’s decision to enforce these non-discrimination protections in health care, particularly at a time LGBTQ people are under attack from a record-breaking number of discriminatory bills being signed into law and moving through state legislatures across the country.”