State of the Law: Anti-Discrimination Protections & Transgender People's Access to Health Care

Transgender people face significant health disparities and challenges and inequities in their ability to access health insurance and adequate medical care. A major contributor to these issues is that transgender people face devastating discrimination in health care-from being turned away from urgent and preventative care to being denied health insurance coverage for the necessary standard of care treatments for gender dysphoria. There are avenues for recourse: two decades of cases, including the landmark Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, establish that laws prohibiting sex discrimination protect transgender people. 

This program, delivered by Ezra Cukor of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and Sharita Gruberg of the National Partnership for Women  & Families, will discuss federal protections applicable to transgender people in the health care system. 

 
Learning Objectives:

1. Review barriers to accessing health care commonly encountered by transgender people

2. Identify how existing federal protections against discrimination apply to discrimination against transgender people in health insurance and healthcare

3. Explore the implications of recent cases, in the landmark Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, for transgender-related health insurance exclusions

4. Identify how § 1557 of the Affordable Care Act & its implementing regulations apply to discrimination against transgender people in various facets of the health care system