By Rebecca Shabad - NBC News
The Joe Biden Administration will reverse a policy passed by former President Donald Trump that limited protections for transgender people in health care, the Department of Health (HHS) announced Monday.
In a victory for the LGBTQ community, the change will prevent healthcare providers and other healthcare organizations that receive federal funds from discriminating based on a person's gender identity or sexual orientation.
"The Supreme Court has made it clear that people have the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex
and to receive equal treatment before the law, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. That is why today the Department of Health announced that will act on related reports of discrimination, ”announced its secretary, Xavier Becerra, in a statement.
Activists from the National Center for Transgender Equality, partner organizations, and their supporters demonstrate outside the White House in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2018. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Becerra added in the document that "fear of discrimination can lead people to forgo medical care, which can have serious negative health consequences. The position of the Department of Health is that everyone, including LGBTQ people, they should be able to access medical care, without discrimination or interference, period. "
The politician stated on Monday in an interview on CNN that "there was a provision in the Affordable Care Act that said that and now it is clear, there is no ambiguity, you cannot discriminate against people based on sexual orientation or identity of gender".
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In June 2020, the Trump Administration finalized its rollback of protections against gender identity discrimination in health care regulated by the law known as Obamacare.
The Health Department announced that it would recognize "sex discrimination according to the simple meaning of the word
sex
as male or female and as determined by biology."
However, a day before Trump's policy took effect in August 2020, a federal judge blocked the new rule.
The Health Department reported Monday that
25% of LGBTQ people who have faced discrimination postponed or avoided receiving
necessary
medical care
because they feared further discrimination.
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"Our department's mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Americans, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. All people need access to health services to heal a broken bone, protect the health of their heart, and detect cancer risk, "said Dr. Rachel Levine, undersecretary of health, who in March became the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate in a federal position.
"No one should be discriminated against when seeking medical services because of who they are," he concluded.