Trump’s administration is rewriting a rule that made transgender health care accessible. Patients are scared
LOS ANGELES — Jyn Dao is scared. His bottom surgery — needed to realign the female genitalia he was born with to his male identity — is scheduled. But it’s not happening until January. And like many trans men and women, he’s afraid President Trump will soon revoke protections in federal law that ensure his surgery is affordable.
“Me, my friends, people in the trans community, we’re really worried,” said Dao, a 25-year-old Vietnamese-American who has been slowly transitioning his gender over the past decade.
If insurance coverage disappears, he added, “a lot of people are going to be trapped in their bodies — including me.”
Republicans in Congress have not been able to overturn the Affordable Care Act — at least, not yet. But the Trump administration is working to revise a section of the law that says federally funded health programs cannot discriminate on the basis of sex.
The Obama administration made clear that this provision required states to cover transgender care through their Medicaid programs. Now, however, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has told that he’s reworking the rule and in the meantime.
