CHICAGO — In formal comments today, the American Medical Association (AMA) spoke out against the Trump administration’s misguided proposal to remove anti-discrimination protections related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and the termination of pregnancy across a wide variety of health care programs and insurance plans.
The AMA noted that the proposal perverts the nondiscrimination provisions included in the Affordable Care Act by drastically limiting coverage protections despite decades of case law recognizing these protections.
The letter said: “This proposal marks the rare occasion in which a federal agency seeks to remove civil rights protections. It legitimizes unequal treatment of patients by not only providers, health care organizations, and insurers, but also by the government itself—and it will harm patients. Such policy should not be permitted by the U.S. government, let alone proposed by it.”
The letter concludes: “HHS should not finalize the proposed rule, but rather should redirect their efforts toward advancing health care access and equity for all. The AMA remains ready to assist with such efforts.”
The full text of the letter at: http://searchlf.ama-assn.org/undefined/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fletter%2FLETTERS%2F209-8-13-Letter-to-Azar-re-1557-Comments.pdf.
—From a press release