Trump Administration Wants to Deny Health Care to LGBTQ People

[workinclasszero]

BY s.e. smith, Rewire.News PUBLISHED February 4, 2019

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last month that it is close to finalizing a conscience protection rule that would allow people to discriminate in health-care settings under cover of law.

The final rule is at the Office of Management and Budget for review and not available to the public. But under the draft rule, which has been made public, health-care providers would be able to refuse to provide treatment, referrals, or assistance with procedures if these activities would violate their stated religious or moral convictions. The deliberately vague language could apply to everyone from receptionists refusing to book appointments to scrub nurses refusing to assist with emergency surgery.

This could be devastating for many marginalized people in the country seeking health care. But it could be especially dangerous for LGBTQ people, who have fought hard to establish legal protections that would guard them against exactly these kinds of denials. When your very body and existence are considered objectionable, seeking health care at the best of times can be dangerous.

HHS already finalized two rules that would allow businesses and other entities, like churches, to refuse to pay for insurance coverage that includes birth control or abortion services if it violates their religious or moral convictions. Enforcement of these rules is currently on hold due to legal decisions, with judges in Pennsylvania and California ruling in favor of challengers. The agency also recently proposed another rule that would create a significant administrative burden for insurance companies that include abortion in their policies, effectively incentivizing them to drop this coverage.

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-administration-wants-to-deny-health-care-to-lgbtq-people/

[stopbush]

1. So tired of the fucking Christians imposing their fucking make believe

on the lives of real people.

[RKP5637]

3. Christian terrorists!!! n/t

[Wounded Bear]

9. Talibangelists...

[RKP5637]

12. Yep!!! Definitely!!! n/t

[bluestarone]

11. BIGGEST problem of today

They just won't leave people alone!!!!!

[Igel]

16. That's sort of the problem, though.

They want to say that doctors can leave people alone.

The discrimination is inactivity. It's like not serving a black person in a diner. You don't do anything to or for them.

[RKP5637]

2. Welcome to Iran! n/t

[safeinOhio]

4. I'm speechless...

I can't find the words to express my disgust with this.

[Wounded Bear]

5. That's just the start...

It's a stepping stone to denying universal health care to everybody.

[safeinOhio]

6. "All farm animals are equal, but

pigs are more equal"

[Wounded Bear]

7. Yep!

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

-Martin Niemoller

[RKP5637]

14. Exactly!!! Often none give a damn about anyone else and then it smacks them in the nose and

they say WTF, how could have this happened.

[workinclasszero]

8. True

A country where any person involved in the health care industry, from janitor to surgeon to insurance CEO, can legally deny care to LGBTQ folks...can deny care to every other citizen as well.

[Wounded Bear]

10. When one person's rights are in danger...

everybody's rights are in danger.

[workinclasszero]

13. 100% true!

[safeinOhio]

23. If you are going to be a prick,

find another job that conforms to your superstition.

[ck4829]

25. Yep

[Miigwech]

15. mike pence operates the Gay hate machine for trump

the sick bastard has to go along with trump .... IMPEACH both, a two for one deal

[RKP5637]

17. So, I guess next will be The Homosexual Test, The Heterosexual Test and the Bi-Sexual Test.

How the hell do these fucken morons know if someone is gay or whatever their sexual preference is. It's outrageous. Fuck, this US is turning into a country of pure stupidity with this ass in the White House. President Liar!

[Docreed2003]

18. This is disgusting

As a healthcare provider, this move is absolutely appalling and, should it pass, any provider who agrees with this policy should be called out for their bigotry.

[MineralMan]

19. Damn them and their phony religious nonsense!

[Hortensis]

20. In action, this would have to backfire widely.

So many people work in healthcare and are proud of what they do. Just imagine how it'd disrupt a ward if a clerk refused to do admin support on someone and everyone else had to make sure everything was done, and properly.

I'm assuming this new law would make it illegal to fire the clerk for cause or his or her ass would be grass the first time this despicable stunt was pulled.

[Buckeyeblue]

21. If I'm a doctor can I refuse to treat Christians?

[Blue_true]

22. Actions like this have their basis in red states.

Trump is increasingly appealing to his far out religious base, he knows that gets him 20-30% of people that vote, automatically. Red areas in red states and blood red states can't figure out why they can't draw advanced industries to red areas, well, they have to look no farther than their primitive policies and their desire to impose their sense of morality on everyone via laws and rules.

[ck4829]

24. Disgusting

[Eyeball_Kid]

26. Common sense:

Corporations cannot have a conscience. They are structured around financial transactions. Corporations do not have beliefs. Corporations are not people.

People have beliefs. Corporations are profit-making organizations. Making profits are the only reason that "for-profit" organizations exist.

I know that this stuff sounds incredibly elementary, but the legal system has gone astray and has deviated from tenets of common sense, and, for that matter, common law.

[Claritie Pixie]

27. Death. That's what they want for those who don't obey their twisted morality.

These people are depraved and their 'god' is an asshole.

[SallyHemmings]

28. It has become redundant to say

How much damage will this group of Traitors do before they are removed from office?

[Ohiogal]

29. What kind of a doctor or nurse

refuses to treat or help a gay person in the ER or another traumatic setting?

They should be in another line of work!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

30. I hereby state my religious or moral convictions ...

It goes against my religious and moral convictions to provide services or assistance to any member of any of the radical Christian extremist religions and Republican Party, due to the extreme harm they inflict on peaceful people.

[treestar]

31. Let's say they in good faith believe that person is a sinner

Why does that mean they can't treat them? It's so stupid. And why doesn't this apply to others they disapprove of, like supposedly adulterers?

[stopbush]

32. Is there such a thing as good faith when it comes to the bigotry

that is writ large in Christianity as a religion? Bigotry and prejudice are fundamental to core Christian beliefs.

[Behind the Aegis]

33. It will largely go unnoticed in the world at large.

It happens already on smaller scales all over the country, but if something like this gets passed, then it will be overt, but little will be done, and now that the SC is all but lost, we will likely lose many more rights in coming days.

[spanone]

34. fucking nazis.