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Texas’s Latest Lawsuit Is a Pack of Lies Against Transgender People

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To read the latest lawsuit filed by Texas against the federal government, you’d think that federal officials were trying to do some very strange things, like force doctors to give harmful drugs or procedures that patients don’t need. That would be outrageous if it weren’t complete fiction.

Since 2010, the Affordable Care Act has prohibited health programs that use federal money from discriminating based on race, national origin, age, disability, and gender. And since 2000, more than a dozen courts have said that gender discrimination, including under the ACA, includes discrimination based on being transgender.

After years of lobbying from a broad coalition of patient advocates, two separate public comment periods with over 25,000 public comments, and a review of over a decade of case law, the Department of Health and Human Services published final regulations to implement this part of the ACA. The rules aimed to make sure that health care facilities are accessible for people with disabilities, that translated materials and interpretation are available when people with limited English proficiency need them most, and that women aren’t charged more for health care. It also said that patients can’t be turned away just because they’re one of the over 1.4 million Americans who are transgender. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to overturn all of those protections.

Here’s what the HHS rule says: You can’t refuse someone care just because of who they are. It doesn’t require anyone to provide care outside their specialty, or that in their sound medical judgment isn’t right for a specific patient, or that’s not supported by medical science. The rule also doesn’t override another federal law, which says that providers with can request religious accommodations in particular cases. Insurance plans can decide what services to cover and decide claims based on medical need—but if they cover a medication or procedure for non-trans people, they can’t refuse it to someone because they’re transgender.

Paxton is also lying about the science behind transition-related care. While it’s a topic most Americans are understandably unfamiliar with, there is a strong medical consensus that for some transgender people medical treatments are necessary to help their body better match their innate identity. In fact, the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Psychiatric Association, and every other major medical association agrees that these treatments can preserve health and prevent terrible suffering. Contrary to Paxton’s claims, Medicare and Medicaid cover treatments for gender transition on a case-by-case basis, and the Defense Department has said it will, too. In his never-ending quest to defame transgender people and promote discrimination, Paxton is distorting the truth.

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