In addition to Vice President Mike Pence’s failure as Chair of the Coronavirus Task Force, the Trump-Pence administration has taken significant action to undermine access to health care, including access for LGBTQ patients.

Attempted to eliminate LGBTQ non-discrimination protections under the ACA:

HHS published a major change to the administrative rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in an effort to remove non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in health care programs and activities. The Human Rights Campaign is in court fighting to stop this Trump-Pence policy change, and has won a preliminary injunction that halted the rule from taking effect.

Advocated for the elimination of the entire Affordable Care Act:

The Justice Department filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be overturned. This move would jeopardize health care for over 130 million people with preexisting conditions like HIV and eliminate health care non-discrimination protections, including for LGBTQ people.

Issued the “conscience rule” for health care providers:

Trump and Pence’s HHS Department issued rules designed to allow health care providers to refuse to treat a patient on religious or moral grounds, significantly impacting LGBTQ people who still deal with widespread discrimination in health care.

Created a “Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom”:

HHS created a new office whose sole purpose would be to divert resources away from patient protections in order to support physicians and other medical professionals who decide to refuse care to patients including because of a patient’s LGBTQ status.

For a full accounting of the Trump-Pence record on health care, click here.