Let’s talk about the rights of any individual pertaining to healthcare. The WHO Constitution (1946) considers “…the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being.”
It is obvious that when healthcare is considered a human right, it can be legally necessitated by the state to ensure access to timely and affordable health care of appropriate quality to all individuals. This also means that simply based on an individual’s ethnicity, race, sexual orientation or any other form of classification, it is not valid to deny or provide subpar healthcare to the affected individual. In fact, medicine in the past has been considered a sacred profession that is here to do ‘good’. This makes it a moral obligation for medical staff and practitioners to provide necessary treatment and care to all those who require it without any form of prejudice.
However, the reality associated with personal biases and ignorance has made it necessary to put in place laws that protect the healthcare rights of individuals, especially for those that are members of marginalized or suppressed groups.
For this purpose, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted signed into law by the then President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. This law defined sex as a person’s internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination and extended healthcare rights protections to cover gender identity. In 2010, the National LGBTQ Task Force reported that 56% of the LGBT+ community experience some form of healthcare discrimination in the USA. It was no surprise that the ACA greatly aided the LGBTQ+ community as it ensured insurance providers could not turn away an individual simply because of their sexual orientation.
However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on 12th June 2020 that it would lift the anti-discrimination protections under ACA. According to this change, the Department of Health and Human Services will be “returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology”.
Quite often it is seen that seemingly encompassing laws can be easily twisted to benefit one a certain section of society while putting others at a disadvantage. This means that though it will still be illegal to discriminate against transgender individuals in terms of health care, this change may make it harder in some ways for transgender individuals to enforce their rights. Thus, the ramifications of this change are quite harsh.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests in the USA, people are wondering about the timing of this law. Tia Sherèe Gaynor, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati said, "I can't help but wonder if the timing is by design so that this is something that people won't pay attention to." Regardless of how true this is, it is clear that this change is detrimental to the LGBTQ+ community. While they are individuals like any other and deserve access to all medical facilities like any other person, they are much too often discriminated against in various aspects of life.
At this stage, an individual who may face health care discrimination in the foreseeable future, are recommended to reach out to LGBT-friendly legal organization to understand the situation and obtain advice on the next steps that they may take. They may even be able to file a complaint with a state’s human rights agency.
Despite these changes, this pride month and any other day, it is important to remember that the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person does not make them any less of a person. They require support like anyone else and without question deserve the right to healthcare.
Image: People protest U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military, in Times Square, in New York City, New York, U.S., July 26, 2017. © 2017 Reuters
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