We Need Your Voice NOW to Protect Queer and Immigrant Communities’ Access to Health Care
The Trump-Pence administration is trying to roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients, people who’ve had abortions, and those with limited English proficiency.
In May, the Trump-Pence administration released a proposed rule intended to undermine the Health Care Rights Law, a non-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed rule would roll back protections for transgender people and people who’ve had abortions.
Who Would the Trump-Pence Administration’s Proposed Rule Affect?
The Trump-Pence administration’s proposed rule would undo crucial protections set out by the Health Care Rights Law, disproportionately affecting communities that already face barriers to accessing health care.
- Transgender People: The proposed rule could undermine health care access and coverage for transgender people, as well as lesbian, gay, and bisexual people — members of communities that already face discrimination — by removing the protections that medical providers can’t use their own personal views when assessing if they are going to treat a patient . Over 30 percent of transgender people report experiencing discrimination in health care, and nearly 90 percent believe there are not enough properly trained health care workers to care for them.
- People Who’ve Had Abortions: The rule, if finalized, would remove specific protections that prohibit discrimination against people based on termination of pregnancy. Additionally, the proposed rule applies a religious exemption that puts the personal beliefs of providers over a patient’s health care.
- Immigrant Communities & People with Limited English Proficiency: If finalized, the rule would scale back requirements that health care entities inform people with limited English proficiency about language-access services. The health care system is already hard to understand, and this rule would only make it harder.
Queer people and immigrants already face significant barriers to accessing care. It’s appalling that this administration would try to make it easier to discriminate against these and other communities.
With Trump’s proposed rollback of the Health Care Rights Law, health care providers — including EMTs and hospitals — could pick and choose who they treat. This would seriously endanger LGBTQ+ people, people who have had or will need abortion care, immigrants, people of color, and people with disabilities.
Health care is a human right for all people — and no one should be denied that right because of who they are. In attack after attack, we’ve seen the Trump-Pence administration attempt to undermine our health and rights: anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ communities are already under attack, abortion bans are sweeping the country, and racist and discriminatory policies are preventing immigrants and their families from getting the health care they need.
