Trump Plan Would Cut Back Healthcare Protections for Transgender People

The Trump administration says it plans to roll back a rule issued by President Barack Obama that prevents doctors, hospitals, and health insurance companies from discriminating against transgender people, reports the New York Times . The rule was adopted in 2016 to carry out a civil rights law embedded in the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in "any health program or activity" that receives federal financial assistance. The Obama administration said the rule covered "almost all practicing physicians in the United States" because they accept some form of federal remuneration or reimbursement. It applies, for example, to hospitals that accept Medicare and doctors who receive Medicaid payments, as well as to insurers that participate in health insurance marketplaces. Trump administration officials said they believed they had to modify the rule because a federal judge in Texas had found that parts of it were unlawful. The judge temporarily stopped enforcement of the protections for transgender patients, saying that Congress had outlawed discrimination based on sex — "the biological differences between males and females" — but not transgender status.