“Obamacare” — How The Affordable Care Act Helps Gays
The Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” does a lot to help gay men, lesbians, transgender and bisexual Americans, and our families. If the Supreme Court ends up declaring Obamacare or any portion of it unconstitutional, all Americans, and especially minorities, will be grossly, negatively affected. And for the recored, the Obama administration has announced they are embracing the term, “Obamacare.”
Today, Kellan Baker, a Health Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress (CAP), posted this list, the “Top 10 Things Health Reform Does for Gay and Transgender Americans,” and quotes Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebeliusas saying, “The Affordable Care Act may represent the strongest foundation we have ever created to begin closing LGBT health disparities.†Baker adds, “We should all be fighting to protect it.” Agreed!
And before you get to the list, a quick note: Joan McCarter at Daily Kos last week noted, “States fighting Affordable Care Act have highest populations of uninsured.” Of course!
Here is CAP’s list of the Top 10 Things Health Reform Does for Gay and Transgender Americans, including abbreviated descriptions. Please visit the Center For American Progress for more details. Our thanks for their excellent analysis.
1. Data collection to better understand LGBT health disparities:
In June 2011 Secretary Sebelius announced a plan for including sexual orientation and gender identity in national data collection efforts starting in 2013, in addition to the law’s required categories of race, ethnicity, primary language, sex, and disability status.
2. Patient’s Bill of Rights to end insurance company abuses
As of 2014 it also prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition such as HIV or a transgender medical history and from arbitrarily canceling a sick person’s coverage.
3. Expansion of public insurance coverage
The new national eligibility threshold also eliminates the disability requirement for Medicaid coverage for people living with HIV.
4. Expansion of private insurance coverage
The law also requires every state to put in place a health insurance exchange starting in 2014. The exchanges will offer subsidies that make it possible for small employers and individuals who make between $15,000 and $43,000 per year to purchase affordable private coverage. Exchanges may not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in any of their activities, and all exchange plans must offer comprehensive benefits across 10 essential health benefit categories, including prescription drugs, hospital stays, and mental and behavioral health services.
5. Coverage of preventive care
Under the Affordable Care Act all Medicare beneficiaries receive free annual checkups, and insurance companies may not charge copays or other fees for preventive services that are recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Of particular importance for gay and transgender people, these services include HIV and other sexually transmitted infection testing, depression screening, vaccinations, tobacco-use screening, and cholesterol and high blood pressure screening.
6. Easy-to-find information about health care reform and you
This website (also in Spanish), which was one of the consumer-friendly reforms the Affordable Care Act required, is the one-stop shop the Department of Health and Human Services maintains for all things related to health care reform. … Same-sex couples, many of whom do not have access to health insurance through their own or their partner’s employer, can use a built-in filter to find plans offering coverage for domestic partners.
7. A diverse and culturally competent health care workforce
What’s more, a new $11 billion fund supports new community health centers and expansion of existing centers, and the law requires the exchanges to ensure access to “essential community providers,†including community health centers that have expertise providing care to underserved populations such as the gay and transgender community.
8. Services for people living with HIV or AIDS
A major aspect of the Affordable Care Act is making prescription drugs more affordable, which will help people living with HIV or AIDS afford the medications they need. The law phases out the Medicare Part D “donut hole†by 2020 and requires pharmaceutical companies to provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs in the donut hole. It also allows ADAP, or the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, contributions to count toward Medicare Part D’s True Out of Pocket Spending Limit, which will help people with HIV move out of the donut hole more quickly.
9. Nondiscrimination protections
Section 1557 …protections include the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, which protect individuals living with HIV or AIDS, and Title IX of the education amendments of 1972, which offer protections on the basis of sex. A national trend in case law interprets Title IX to include gender identity and sex stereotyping, though not sexual orientation. The Equal Opportunity Employment policies at several federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, also include gender identity under sex protections.
10. Community-based prevention programs
According to the National Prevention Strategy, which was created under the Affordable Care Act, “all Americans should have the opportunity to live long, healthy, independent, and productive lives, regardless of their … sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics.â€
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Billionaire Elon Musk is threatening to target members of Congress for defeat if they support President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after campaigning on promises to cut government spending. Although Musk did not specifically name a party, no Democrat is expected to back the budget measure.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote late Monday afternoon, as the Senate began voting on the legislation. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Musk’s threat comes after his numerous attacks on the bill—which is critical to Trump’s agenda—based largely on its massive increases to the federal debt.
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“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” Musk declared one hour earlier. “Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”
New York magazine’s Intelligencer reported on Monday that Musk is “not done” fighting Trump.
“How can you call yourself the Freedom Caucus if you vote for a DEBT SLAVERY bill with the biggest debt ceiling increase in history?” Musk also wrote, lashing out at the far-right caucus, and mentioning two Members by name: U.S. Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland, the group’s chairman, and Chip Roy of Texas.
On Saturday, Musk had warned, “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party,” he also warned.
New York magazine noted that “Trump, presumably, isn’t thrilled about Musk’s last-minute attempt to sink his signature legislative package. But so far he’s refrained from hitting back.”
READ MORE: Despite Bill’s $1T Cut Trump Official Insists ‘We’re Not Taking Away Anybody’s Medicaid’
Image via Reuters
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo is facing criticism for calling President Donald Trump’s latest reversal on undocumented immigrant workers “big news,” after the President floated creating “temporary passes.”
Earlier this month, Trump announced ICE would back off from detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants working on farms and in hotels, only to announce just days later an apparent reversal to that policy, by declaring he would enact “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
Bartiromo, in a White House interview on Sunday (video below), told Trump that he had “said, let’s ease up on, you know, taking in people that are working hardworking, like, in farms and hotels,” while ignoring his statement from days later.
“I don’t back away,” Trump insisted. “What I do, I cherish our farmers, and when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years who who are good, who possibly came in incorrectly, and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do something for farmers where we can let the farmers sort of be in charge.”
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“The farmer knows, he’s not gonna hire a murderer, but, you know, when you go into a farmer and he’s had somebody working with him for nine years doing this kind of work, which is hard work to do, and a lot of people aren’t gonna do it, and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away,” Trump explained. “It’s a problem.”
Trump announced the White House is “gonna work it so that,” there is “some kind of a temporary pass, where people pay taxes, with a farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”
On social media, Bartiromo trumpeted: “Big news on the border from my interview @realDonaldTrump is working on a ‘temporary pass’ for workers on farms and in hotels where they pay taxes but it’s up to the farmer for a temporary pass even if they came into the country ‘incorrectly.'”
What Trump described sounds similar to the existing H-2A temporary visa program for agricultural workers.
“The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
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Critics mocked the Fox News host.
“So a work permit?” snarked U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
“They just invented the work visa,” mocked retired intelligence officer Travis Akers.
“But wait,” urged former Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, “we were told Americans would be doing these jobs and that everyone who came into this country illegally would be deported. What could have possibly changed?”
“Donald Trump has no idea what his immigration policy is,” noted Democratic strategist Max Burns.
“Stunning incoherence on his signature policy issue,” observed Gregg Nunziata, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Watch Part 2 of @MariaBartiromo‘s interview with @POTUS where they discuss the OBBB, the border, the future of the Fed, the Biden autopen scandal, and ending the war in the Congo pic.twitter.com/Jz9zkmS3e8
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) June 29, 2025
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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the Senate Republicans’ budget bill will slash $1 trillion from Medicaid, but according to Kevin Hassett, the White House Director of the National Economic Council, no one’s Medicaid is being taken away.
The CBO projects the current Republican Senate budget bill will cut $930 billion from Medicaid, but an amendment from Florida GOP Senator Rick Scott would make additional cuts of $313 billion, for a total of $1.24 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, according to The Hill.
But according to the White House’s Kevin Hassett, “we’re not taking away anybody’s Medicaid.”
After Fox News host Bill Hemmer told Hassett on Monday that the White House is “getting hammered on these Medicaid cuts,” Hassett, chuckling, said: “The bottom line is that we’re just, we’re not taking away anybody’s Medicaid. We’re definitely not taking away anybody’s Medicare.”
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Hassett insisted that Republicans are merely “going after waste, fraud, and abuse,” and claimed “there’s a heck of a lot of it out there.”
Some experts put the waste, fraud, and abuse numbers—which can include improper payments and errors—at about five percent of Medicaid spending.
Hassett appears to disagree.
“A lot of budget savings have been found by people really in the House, in the Senate—not just conservatives—moderates agree that there’s a lot of money that can be saved. And the bottom line is that we’re, in the end going to balance this budget, and we’ve got to balance this budget by getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, and we’re going to do it.”
The Congressional Budget Office, according to KFF, has also estimated that by 2034 there will be an additional 16 million more uninsured people if the bill is signed into law.
READ MORE: Democratic Reps Say FEMA Cuts Are Leading to Hurricane Katrina-Level Disaster
“The scale of the proposed reductions in Medicaid is unprecedented in the history of the program, which has tended to expand coverage over time since its creation in 1965,” The New York Times reports.
Calling the cuts “savings,” the Times reports the bill in part “would establish a new, strict national work requirement for some people on the program, who would need to demonstrate they had worked at least 80 hours the month before they sign up, or qualified for an exemption.”
More cuts to Medicaid in the bill could be coming. The Times also reports that U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Sunday “told reporters that he would propose an amendment that would cut Medicaid even further.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Despite bill’s $1T cut Trump official insists “we’re not taking away anybody’s Medicaid.”pic.twitter.com/xuSRDvHCap
— David Badash (@davidbadash) June 30, 2025
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Image via Reuters
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