Washington, D.C. — Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its latest notice of proposed rulemaking to expand and strengthen nondiscrimination protections in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. Amid the ongoing public comment period, a new issue brief released today from the Center for American Progress presents new survey data showing that discrimination against LGBTQI+ communities—particularly transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people—remains pervasive in health care settings. Drawing from a nationally representative survey conducted in June 2022 by CAP and NORC at the University of Chicago, the findings reveal high rates of health care professionals and insurers denying care for LGBTQI+ people and demonstrate how heightened discrimination often deters LGBTQI+ people from seeking care.
“The proposed rule would restore critical protections that the Trump administration gutted and is particularly important at a time when some states are attacking access to care” said Caroline Medina, director of the LGBTQI+ Research and Communications Project at CAP and co-author of the issue brief. “These alarming findings underscore the need for adopting robust nondiscrimination protections in the final Section 1557 rule in order to safeguard access to health care and insurance coverage for LGBTQI+ communities.”
Notably, the survey data reveal:
- 32 percent of transgender or nonbinary respondents, including 46 percent of transgender or nonbinary respondents of color, reported that they experienced at least one kind of refusal by a health care provider in the past year.
- 55 percent of intersex respondents reported that a health care provider refused to see them because of their sex characteristics or intersex variation.
- 28 percent of transgender or nonbinary respondents reported that a health insurance company denied them coverage for gender-affirming hormone therapy, and 22 percent reported that a health insurance company denied them coverage for gender-affirming surgery.
Click here to read: “Advancing Health Care Nondiscrimination Protections for LGBTQI+ Communities” by Caroline Medina and Lindsay Mahowald
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Tricia Woodcome at [email protected].