The U.S. House of Representatives passed a reconciliation bill on Thursday, May 22, that includes several proposed changes to Medicaid, including imposing work requirements for enrollees, stricter eligibility checks, and incentives for states to not expand Medicaid. The bill also includes provisions that prohibit Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender people of any age.
Those changes, The Williams Institute warns, “would have a disproportionate impact on specific subpopulations of LGBT adults, including those living with low incomes, those raising children, individuals with disabilities, people of color, sexual minority women and transgender people.’
The Williams Institute is part of the UCLA School of Law.
A recent Williams Institute report found that more than 185,000 transgender adults rely on Medicaid as their primary health insurance, and some 13 percent of LGBT adults — approximately 1.8 million people — rely on Medicaid for their primary health insurance, compared to 7 percent of non-LGBT adults.
Transgender adults and cisgender lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to rely on Medicaid as their primary source of health insurance than non-LGBT people and gay and bisexual men, the report notes.
— Tammye Nash