Biden administration reverses limits on transgender health protections

The Biden administration announced on Monday that it will reverse Trump-era limits on health care protections against discrimination for gay and transgender people.  

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that its Office for Civil Rights will enforce bans on sex discrimination applying to sexual orientation and gender identity in a shift from the former administration’s policies. 

The move comes after former President Trump’s administration ruled to remove ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination protections that prevented health care workers from denying care to patients based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.

“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Everyone — including LGBTQ people — should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.”

NEW from @SecBecerra >>

“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences. Everyone — including LGBTQ people — should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.” https://t.co/vOFZBiYJyl

— Sean Higgins (@smhigg) May 10, 2021

The previous administration’s HHS policy kept protections against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. But the then-update narrowed the definition of sex to only mean “biological sex,” cutting out transgender people from the protections.

The decision to reinstate the previous protections followed a Supreme Court decision last year that concluded federal laws against sex discrimination in the workplace also safeguarded gay and transgender people.

Becerra said in an HHS notice that the change, effective Monday, intends to reflect the Supreme Court’s ruling in the health care sphere.

The department also cited research in its release that one-quarter of LGBTQ people who said they have endured discrimination delayed or avoided health care.

Under the new policy, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will use the adjusted definition of sex discrimination when processing complaints and completing investigations. Hospitals and other health care providers can now face sanctions if it’s determined they discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Trump administration drew praise from religious conservatives and condemnation from LGBTQ advocates when officials unveiled the rule during Pride month, in June.

At the time, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the restriction removed protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 10 existing regulations.

But a day before the rule was set to go into effect, a federal judge blocked aspects of Trump’s policy and said the recent Supreme Court decision on workplace discrimination contradicted the new policy.

Trump officials argued that health care discrimination policy was different from the workplace discrimination considered in the Supreme Court, according to The Associated Press.

Updated at 10:29 a.m.