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The Trump administration had rescinded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.”