NCLEJ Condemns Trump Administration’s Rule to Rollback ACA’s Non-Discrimination Provisions and Applauds SCOTUS Protection for LGBTQ+ People
On June 12th, the Trump administration finalized a rule that would effectively deny protections for two significant and under-served populations—people with limited English proficiency and transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. At a time when the nation is facing a pandemic that has highlighted health inequities and disparities across country, the Trump administration’s rule will make it even harder for people in these groups to access critical medical services.
The new rule makes changes to the regulations that enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination in health care programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability. The new rule will no longer require adequate notice and language access measures to ensure individuals with limited English proficiency are not subject to discrimination while accessing critical health care services. And the rule will now provide license for health care provides to deny services to transgender and gender-nonconforming people who are seeking reproductive and sexual health care services.
The Trump administration has targeted the LGBTQ+ community as “less than” time and time again. But, thankfully, this morning’s Supreme Court decision, which interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as providing non-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ workers, rejects that very notion. The Trump administration submitted an amicus brief in the case opposing the extension of Title VII protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but the Supreme Court roundly rejected Trump’s position.
NCLEJ condemns the Trump administration’s blatant attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, a group that disproportionately experiences poverty and health disparities due to discrimination based on sex and gender identity in employment and health care spaces. We are particularly appalled by the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the ability of already vulnerable groups to access health care services in light of COVID-19, which has disproportionately harmed people of color, and amid acts of violence against the Black community, including more recently, the killings of Black trans women in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Last year, NCLEJ joined an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case decided today, supporting the rights of LGBTQ+ people under the Civil Rights Act.
