HIVHealthReform.org - National Health Reform with an HIV Lens

HIVHealthReform.org is your source for news and information on the impact of national health reform on the lives and health of people with HIV. 

 

Check it out, share it with a friend, learn, and take action!

 

Here's a sample of what you can find there...

Living with HIV? Top 5 Things You Need to Know about Health Care Reform

The new health reform law offers people with HIV unprecedented opportunities to improve their health.  Here are just some of the reasons:

1. Comprehensive, free health coverage for all very low-income people:  Medicaid is the nation’s safety net health program for low-income people, currently covering about four in ten people with HIV/AIDS.  In 2014, Medicaid will expand to provide most low-income people living with HIV access to comprehensive health care.  Read more about this critical low-income health care program.

2. Get affordable, private health insurance: Moderate and middle-income people living with HIV earning between about $15,000 and $44,000 a year will be able to receive tax benefits and financial assistance to purchase private health insurance with comprehensive benefits. Learn why this will transform the fight against HIV.

3. Private health insurance companies will have to play by the new rules:  The health reform law will finally force health insurance companies to treat consumers fairly. Learn more about how people with HIV will benefit.

4. Better Medicare:  For people with HIV who are disabled and on Medicare, the Part D prescription drug benefit is already becoming more affordable. Read more about this and other improvements.

5. Get coverage now:  Need health coverage now before 2014?  Health reform sets up some programs that could help you now, and there are some oldies but goodies you might not know about.  Learn more.

REPORT: What Health Care Reform Means for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Americans

via Center for American Progress, by Kellan Baker and Jeff Krehely 

The impact of the Affordable Care Act on gay and transgender people and their families remains largely unexplored. This report explains how the new health law already affects this community, and how they and their allies can continue to advocate for broad inclusion as the law is fully implemented between now and 2014.

President Barack Obama moved forcefully to tackle injustice and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans by signing into law two bills long championed by LGBT and human rights organizations.* First is the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the 1969 federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by bias against someone’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Second is the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on service by openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals.

But as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us almost fifty years ago, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” The Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law passed in March 2010, seeks to remedy this injustice by transforming the U.S. health system. The law expands access to health and affordable health care for millions of people in America, including gay and transgender Americans and others who are among our society’s most vulnerable.

Read the rest, and link to the report, here.

National Coalition for LGBT Health Celebrates First Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

The National Coalition for LGBT Health is pleased to celebrate March 23, 2011 as the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. One year ago, when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, he enacted the most sweeping change in the American health system in four decades. As part of the fabric of American society, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families are already seeing the benefits of this far-reaching transformation of our health system.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, LGBT people who have never been able to afford health insurance or health care will soon be able to access affordable private coverage or Medicaid in every state. A strong Patient’s Bill of Rights is already protecting access to coverage and care for LGBT people by prohibiting dollar limits on coverage and making sure that LGBT people are no longer vulnerable to losing vital coverage when they become ill. The Affordable Care Act is also key to efforts such as expanding LGBT cultural competency in the health care workforce, making preventive care available to everyone, improving data collection to better identify and address LGBT health disparities, and recognizing the increasing diversity of America’s families.

“Fundamentally, access to health care is social justice at its most basic. LGBT people need not only an end to legal discrimination but also access to the resources we need to lead healthy, happy lives,” said Hutson W. Inniss, Executive Director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health. “The Affordable Care Act offers a historic opportunity to prioritize prevention and wellness and make health care affordable and accessible for everyone, including LGBT people and their families. As queer people, we have a unique tradition of fighting for our right to health and caring for each other and our communities. Like Walt Whitman, Dr. Mary Edward Walker, Arizona hero Daniel Hernandez, and countless others, the LGBT community must help lead the fight to build safer, healthier communities for everyone in this country.”

The 10 Stories to Follow as HIV/AIDS Enters Its Fourth Decade

via Colorlines, by Ramon Johnson

Thirty years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and after decades of research disappointments, 2010 saw major breakthroughs that put scientific advances such as microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and vaccines within reach and created a favorable environment for other prevention and treatment efforts. In fact, some experts predict that over the next year, some of these discoveries could change the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic.

So what comes next? Colorlines will be covering the HIV epidemic closely throughout this year, in which the epidemic plunges into its fourth decade. Here, we examine 10 major HIV stories of 2010—and how experts expect them to unfold during 2011.

1. Microbicides March Toward the Market

Could applying a gel to the vagina or rectum one day prevent HIV? Scientists hope so. Last year, South African researchers reported breakthroughs in microbicide research. They found that inserting a vaginal-gel version of an antiretroviral medicine called tenofovir (prescribed in pill form as Viread) could reduce HIV incidence in women by 39 percent—and up to 54 percent in the most careful users.

What to watch: Never have scientists been closer to identifying a viable microbicide than they are today. Next steps include confirming these results. Some experts believe that a microbicide for women could be on the market by 2014. Efforts to develop a rectal microbicide are also under way; however, vaginal and rectal tissue are very different from each other, so this research may take significantly longer***.

Read the rest.

***Note - Rectal microbicide research is indeed a bit, er, behind compared to vaginal microbicides - but it is moving forward nonetheless. There are small trials underway now with sites in Pittsburgh, Boston, San Juan and Birmingham!

Learn more about rectal microbicide research and advocacy at the home of IRMA - International Rectal Microbicide Advocates. Or visit the IRMA blog.

Health Care Reform and LGBTs - The Big Picture

via The Notion, by Nancy Goldstein

Even in downscaled form, the Affordable Care Act may transform the Big Picture for LGBT people more radically than any other federal legislation in this last decade. I say this with no disrespect to the marriage equality movement and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But not all LGBT people are ready, willing, or able to enlist in marriage or the military, whereas everyone needs medical care.

Read it all.

LGBTs - Vote NO on Health Care Repeal - Call Congress TODAY

via the National Coalition for LGBT Health

VOTE NO ON REPEAL OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Fight for your right to a healthier community: tell your Representative to vote no on repealing health care reform.


"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1966

On Monday, January 17, we remember(ed) one of the most important civil and human rights champions of our time: Martin Luther King, Jr. As one of the most visible leaders of the modern civil rights movement, he was a prophetic voice speaking out for the equal and just treatment of all people.

Dr. King’s spirit is carried on by activists like you who share his belief in inherent human worth, a belief that takes us beyond asking for freedom from discrimination and to demanding the resources we need to live full and healthy lives. As Dr. King reminded us almost fifty years ago, access to health care is justice at its most basic. Its denial is injustice at its most base.

In direct opposition to Dr. King’s legacy, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2, “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” on Wednesday, January 19. This bill will attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, last year’s historic law that extends access to health and health care to millions of people in America.In partnership with the National Black Justice Coalition and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Coalition for LGBT Health asks you to help keep Dr. King's dream alive.

Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard right now at (202) 224-3121 and tell them where you live. They’ll connect you with your Representative.

Tell them to vote no on repealing health care reform.

That's (202) 224-3121. CALL NOW.

Click here for an LGBT-focused analysis of the Affordable Care Act
Click here for fact sheets on nine priority areas of implementation

HHS Website on Consequences of Repealing Healthcare Reform

New House Leadership of the 112th Congress began their new session by announcing that their first order of business would be to repeal the Affordable Care Act of 2010 instead of focusing on their campaign pledges to address the economy and create jobs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has developed a website detailing the consequences of repealing the Act. . This website contains concrete data and evidence detailing what is at stake from a national and state perspective.

Check it out.

Illinois-specific info.

You can take action by contacting your elected officials and urging them to defend the Affordable Care Act of 2010 against attacks and claims that are detrimental to the public health of our nation. To find out whom your congressmen are, please visit:
http://whoismyrepresentative.com and enter your zip code. This website contains links to Congressmen’s websites, address, and direct phone number.

Alternatively, the following main switchboard numbers can transfer you to their office: Senate (2 representatives perstate): (202) 224-3121 House of Representatives (1 representative per local district): (202) 225-3121.

Senate Democrats vow to block health care repeal

via Associated Press

Top Senate Democrats are warning House Speaker-elect John Boehner they'll block any Republican effort to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Citing better Medicare prescription coverage and other changes in the new law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his top lieutenants say the overhaul "is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care."

The letter says repeal would have "unintended consequences" for the part of the law that gradually closes the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, as well as for other popular consumer benefits. Also signing the letter are Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington.

A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Real Scrooge this Christmas? Cardinal George and the Pro-Birth Agenda

Lifeluber Pete Subkoviak on HuffPo -

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, until recently under the leadership of Chicago's own Cardinal Francis George, officially opposes health care reform (Merry Christmas, the poor and forgotten of America). This, my friends, is crazy.

They don't oppose the legislation because it fails to cover all Americans, or because it specifically excludes legal and illegal immigrants, most of whom are Catholic. Their reasoning is that of course, some how, some way, abortions might be paid for by the federal government; this despite the fact that the legislation and a related executive order signed by President Obama maintain federal prohibitions on funding abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life -- restrictions that have been in place since 1976.

Like so many of my generation, I'm a lapsed Catholic, and every so often the actions of the Church remind me why I cannot in good conscience support an institution that is prioritizes the facade of piety over the well-being of its followers. The systematic cloaking of child abuse is a most egregious example, but opposing the expansion of health care for poor Catholics is pretty darn harmful too. I have to say that in my experience the people of the Catholic faith are wonderfully good, but the bishops, cardinals and Vatican rarely lift a finger for their followers.

Read the rest..

America, Love it or Leave It: 59 million have no health insurance

via Reuters

Nearly 59 million Americans went without health insurance coverage for at least part of 2010, many of them with conditions or diseases that needed treatment, federal health officials said on Tuesday.

They said 4 million more Americans went without insurance in the first part of 2010 than during the same time in 2008.

"Both adults and kids lost private coverage over the past decade," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news briefing.

The findings have implications for U.S. healthcare reform efforts. A bill passed in March promises to get health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans who currently lack coverage.

But Republicans who just took control of the House of Representatives last week have vowed to derail the new law by cutting off the funds for it, and some want to repeal it. Experts from both sides predict gridlock in Congress for the next two years in implementing healthcare reform's provisions.

Read the rest.

Rep. Quigley, CDC HIV Director Fenton and Black AIDS Institute Head Wilson to Speak in Chicago November 8th

Going to be in Chicago on November 8th? Consider coming to From Vienna to Washington D.C., a free panel discussion on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and other current events in the domestic AIDS battle featuring Congressman Mike Quigley, Kevin Fenton, MD PhD, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute. Read more about the event below and Register today!

Download the poster

Ahead of the 2010 International AIDS Conference held in Vienna, President Obama released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, fulfilling a major campaign promise. Learn about the Strategy and other highlights from Vienna at this local community briefing session. In particular, panelists will discuss what the new Strategy means for Chicago and Illinois and how local stakeholders can give input into planning the 2012 International AIDS Conference taking place in Washington, DC.

New health care law addresses LGBT needs

Within six months of the enactment of this law, we have put in place policies that many of us have fought our entire life for.

via Bay Area Reporter, by Matt Baume

Six months after the passage of health care reform, big changes are under way for the ways that LGBTs access health care. With lower costs and expanded protections on the horizon, the LGBT Community Center [San Francisco] hosted a forum Monday to explain the ways that health care has already changed and may shift in the months and years ahead.

Hosted by Dan Gould, director of the California LGBT Health and Human Services Network, a program of the Equality California Institute, the discussion featured comments by Herb Schultz, California's regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services, and David Hansell, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families.

Appointed earlier this year by President Barack Obama, Schultz and Hansell are key to the administration's efforts to address LGBT health issues.

Provisions of the Affordable Care Act have already begun reform private insurance and expand public programs, and are expected to continue doing so over the next decade.

Among the new measures is expanded eligibility for Medicaid, caps on out-of-pocket expenses, tax credits for small businesses, free prevention and wellness programs, and annual wellness consultations for Medicare recipients.

Behind the scenes, health organizations will improve data collection and will receive improved cultural sensitivity training.

The reforms also eliminate lifetime limits on heath coverage, and prohibit insurance companies from dropping customers when they become sick. These issues have disproportionately affected people with HIV.

Schultz recommended that people visit www.healthcare.gov to learn more about how their coverage and options may be changing.

The work of HHS isn't limited to just the implementation of the health care reform bill. Hansell pointed out that the department administers a broad range of services and protections, including the enforcement of Obama's recent directives that hospitals recognize advance care directives and enforce inclusive visitation policies.

Obama also asked HHS to make recommendations for addressing health care issues that affect the LGBT community. The department has convened a committee to gather recommendations from citizens and health organizations, and expects to issue those recommendations this fall.
Among the recommendations currently under investigation are guidelines for benefits that serve transgender individuals.

"ACF was not very LGBT-friendly in the previous administration," Hansell acknowledged. "Well, I can tell you, that has changed."

To that end, ACF has created new programs to serve LGBT adoptive parents, including outreach and grants for parent-to-parent support programs. In addition, the administration has directed programs for homeless youth to specifically serve LGBTs. It is also revising abstinence education – which it is required by Congress to provide – to more appropriately reflect the concerns of LGBT youth.

"Within six months of the enactment of this law, we have put in place policies that many of us have fought our entire life for," Schultz said. But, he added, their work is far from over.

"In order for us to be successful, we need the community to tell us the things that are important," he said.

Health Care Reform - It's a Win!

If you're not totally jazzed about health care reform, perhaps you should be. The insurance industry has been allowed to openly and legally discriminate against people with HIV and other chronic illnesses but that's coming to an end. The new Patient's Bill of Rights goes into effect on September 23, 2010, making health insurance fairer for every insured American, including those with HIV.

This is only the beginning of the march to health care equality. Allow us to tell you what you've won, America:

• No more coverage bans for sick kids: HIV rates are increasing among youth and particularly youth of color but insurance companies won't be able to deny them coverage under their parent's insurance plan just because they are sick.

• Your policy can't be unfairly canceled: Remember when you applied for your health insurance but forgot to disclose that you fractured your thumb in the eighth grade? Your plan could have canceled your policy for this omission. This disgusting insurance practice ends tomorrow.

• No lifetime limits on health care spending: A cap of $1 million for health care services might sound pretty generous, but not to someone who's been living with HIV/AIDS for 20 years. Right now, one-third of Americans have policies with lifetime caps - but not after tomorrow.

In addition, starting September 23, you'll have the right to appeal insurance company decisions, choose any doctor who is in your plan, get free access to prevention and wellness services, and more. Great stuff? Yup. And there's more to come between now and 2014, when the new law is fully implemented.

Check out this snazzy video for more info on health care reform!

Playing doctor no fun without insurance

Doctor, Doctor

Despite gains in society, gays and lesbians still face challenges receiving equal treatment in health care

via Metro Weekly, by Sean Bugg

Back in the very early 1990s, not long after college and in the depths of my great post-collegiate career crisis — fancy speak for ''educated and unemployed'' — I found myself without health insurance. This seemed no big deal for a young, healthy, adult male.

Then my wisdom tooth decided to make a move, becoming impacted, painful and in desperate need of removal. After many calls to dentists' offices to no avail, a friend told me to call a local dental school where in exchange for being a student's lesson I could have the tooth removed for $50.

No health insurance meaning no choice, that's what I did.

I got a Novocain injection — you need insurance to get the good stuff — and an explanation that my deeply rooted tooth would need to be cut apart in my jaw in order to be taken out.

It was about the time that I began flailing my arms wildly and choking out guttural screams from my wedged-open mouth — causing the student to remove his little power saw and the supervising dentist to ask, ''Are you feeling something?'' — that I formed some particularly strong ideas about our nation's health care system.

Now, it may not be entirely fair to base my opinions on health care reform solely on a painful, uninsured medical experience. But, even as brief as the time was, living without health insurance and suddenly needing it is rather enlightening.

The same goes for being openly gay and getting health care.

I've had a doctor go chilly on me when I mentioned my orientation. I've had friends who've experienced the same. I had a friend, since passed, who ended up in the farthest ends of the hospital ward with a big biohazard sign stuck to the door of his room.

I've watched as HIV-prevention science ignored sex between men, focusing studies on the efficacy of microbicides solely on vaginal use. I've seen condoms for receptive sexual partners instantly branded ''female condoms,'' and nearly 20 years pass before they became an openly used part of HIV prevention for gay men. I've listened as lesbian friends tell of their own unease dealing with physicians who essentially treat them as embryo-delivery systems rather than women in need of specific care and treatment based on their individual lives.

When Leslie Calman, executive director of the Mautner Project, says that lesbians and gay men are ''truly invisible in much of the research system,'' she's not exaggerating. (See interview, p. 24.) In many very real, very damaging ways, we simply do not count.

While we're fortunate to live in an area with a significant supply of LGBT-friendly physicians — and, even better, many LGBT physicians and medical professionals — not everyone has the means to access them. Those are the sorts of gaps that Mautner, along with a number of other LGBT-focused health organizations, has worked to fill.

As I write this, the health care reform drama on Capitol Hill continues. If it passes, as I hope it does, it will be an important step in reconfiguring how our nation approaches health care. But, particularly for our own LGBT community, many steps remain. It's up to us to advocate for our equal treatment in research and care.

And it's up to those of us who have access to health care to demand treatment with respect, to help set the standard for others who may not be as ready or able to speak out for themselves.

Source

Most appalling, and vindicating, story of the day - Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage

via Reuters

In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.

Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that.

So he hired an attorney -- not because he wanted to sue anyone; on the contrary, the shy African-American teenager expected his insurance was canceled by mistake and would be reinstated once he set the company straight.

But Fortis, now known as Assurant Health, ignored his attorney's letters, as they had earlier inquiries from a case worker at a local clinic who was helping him. So Mitchell sued.

In 2004, a jury in Florence County, South Carolina, ordered Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc, to pay Mitchell $15 million for wrongly revoking his heath insurance policy.

In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict, although the court reduced the amount to be paid him to $10 million.

By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell not only obtained a measure of justice for himself; he also helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the entire health insurance industry.

Read the rest.

Monday Morning Perk-Up [Big Bird and Health Care Reform]

Prevent a Horror-Movie Ending: Pass Health Reform NOW!

Healthcare advocates expect excessively shaky camera work at Thursday’s high-stakes meetings, to be held at the Blair House in Washington. Will our leaders break the political impasse to bring about real health care reform? Or will they sentence lifesaving legislation to permanent banishment in the woods?

The White House released the president's health care reform proposal this morning, and on Thursday will hold a nationally televised summit on health reform, President Obama and congressional leaders must chart a course out of the political thicket obstructing final passage for health reform legislation. The hopes of tens of millions of uninsured Americans—and tens of millions more who will surely lose affordable coverage—rests in the outcome of this meeting.

Contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid NOW and urge them to do whatever it takes to pass comprehensive health reform through budget reconciliation. Call them—and your own members of Congress toll-free at: 1 (800) 828-0498. Go to www.congress.org to find out who represents you.

State Budget, ADAP and Health Care Reform - Updates on All at the SPC Policy Advocacy Meeting January 14

Please join the AIDS Foundation of Chicago Service Provider Council’s Policy and Advocacy Committee for our first meeting of the new year on January 14th from 4-6PM at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. We’ll tackle all the big issues facing the HIV/AIDS community in 2010: the state budget, ADAP and health care reform. Get the inside scoop and find out where we are, and where we’re heading.

You must RSVP to galdrighetti@aidschicago.org to attend.

SPC Policy and Advocacy Meeting
January 14, 2010, 4-6PM
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
200 W Jackson, #2200
Chicago, IL 60606

Lieberman SOCKS

Health Care Reform is a GBT Issue - Call Your Senator TODAY

via the Gay Men's Health Agenda

Want to get involved? Send the group and email.
[gaymenshealthagenda@gmail.com]

Take Action – Call Your Senator, and let her/him know that you want full health care reform that includes the needs of gay, bi and trans men.

Below are the toll free numbers for the national congressional switch board:

1-866-220-0044
1-877-851-6437

They will transfer you to your senator, all you need to do is give them the state you live in.

We now stand at a critical juncture in our movement. Never before has the discussion been so primed for action and major victories been so close to our grasp. It is truly a transformative time, where the work we accomplish now will have effects for decades to come. So please stay involved, stay committed and remember it is our health we are fighting for.

Here is a great article on the connection between gay men’s health and health care reform.

Key Issues (great for talking points)

Healthcare reform must be fully GBT-inclusive.

Social stigma and systemic discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression have significant negative impacts on the overall health of gay, bisexual, and transgender (GBT) men. GBT men suffer disproportionately from the adverse health effects of stigma, stress, and violence, further compounded by the barriers that prevent them from accessing vital healthcare services even for routine care: research has consistently shown that being GBT substantially impacts whether or not a person receives care and, when they do receive care, whether that care effectively speaks to all aspects of their lives. In order to begin to address these disparities, any healthcare reform must be fully GBT-inclusive.

Removing Pre-Exisitng Conditions from Coverage is a Priority.

Due to widespread employment discrimination and lack of relationship recognition, GBT men are more likely to be without prior insurance coverage and are thus disproportionately affected by practices that preclude or limit coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Many transgender individuals with a previous diagnosis or history of treatment for transsexualism report being excluded outright from purchasing even basic individual coverage for routine care. In addition, due to experiences of stigma or discrimination, GBT individuals are less likely overall to have accessed ongoing preventive healthcare or early diagnostic services. For both physical and mental conditions that exact a high toll in the GBT population, late diagnosis and treatment lead to a higher prevalence of serious, advanced-stage disease and ultimately to excessive mortality.

We Must Be Counted!

Historically, health data collection efforts have not included GBT populations or gathered information regarding the specific healthcare needs of GBT men. To address this lack of data, all new or updated national forms or data collection tools must be made inclusive of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. In addition, all efforts to track or redress health disparities must include GBT men as a health disparities population, and efforts to identify cost-effective healthcare protocols must include sensitivity to the health needs and outcomes of the LGBT community.

Health Care Reform Must Include Non-Discrimination Provisions.

GBT individuals and their families must be able to access the full range of services they require, delivered by providers who are sensitive to their needs, and any form of healthcare that is regulated or monitored by the federal government must be required to be permanently GBT-inclusive.

A Robust Public Option is a GBT Issue.

Enacting healthcare coverage for everyone in the United States is an important step in eliminating healthcare disparities for the GBT population. The current system of employer-based coverage is a barrier to many, since so few employers extend coverage eligibility to same-sex partners. In addition, the lack of employment protections based on gender identity and expression results in a high rate of unemployment in the transgender community and further reduces access to insurance coverage.

Your voices helped to ensure the passage of the GBT provisions within the House bill and now it’s time to take our fight to the Senate.

Thanks you for your involvement,

The GMHA Leadership Core
Jim Pickett
Cornelius Baker
Chris Bartlett
Stewart Landers
Kaijson Noilmar