Plan targets health care bias against transgender people
Mirroring a shift in society, the Obama administration proposed Thursday to ban discrimination against transgender people throughout the health care system.
Once the proposed regulations are final, they should expand insurance coverage for gender transition and prohibit health care facilities from denying transgender people access to restrooms that match their individual gender identity.
The new protections are part of a broader rule from the Department of Health and Human Services to carry out anti-bias provisions of President Barack Obama's health care law. In a first, the law specified that sex discrimination is prohibited in health care, and the regulation carries it a step further, clarifying that "gender identity" is included under that protective umbrella.
"This is a huge step," said Michael Silverman, director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. "It covers a lot of ground."
* Jocelyn Samuels, head of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, said the rule does not explicitly require insurers to cover gender transition treatment, including surgery. But insurers could face questions if they deny medically necessary services related to gender transition by a man who identifies as a woman, or a woman who identifies as a man.
"It is basically a requirement that insurers use nondiscriminatory criteria," Samuels told reporters.
The new requirements would have impact throughout the health care system because service providers who accept federal dollars would have to comply."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-bc-us--health-discrimination-transgender-20150903-story.html
