Health Care Fairness

After all of the novel theories and nuanced legal arguments made by supporters and opponents of Obamacare over the many months this case has been pending, the Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell essentially came down to this: denying health insurance subsidies to lower-income people in 34 states would have been so disastrous that Congress could not have intended that result when it passed the Affordable Care Act. As the Court’s opinion pointed out, “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.”

On Wednesday, Connecticut’s Department of Social Services announced a change in the state’s Medicaid policy to provide coverage for medically necessary healthcare for transgender people. Learn more at Lambda Legal's Know Your Rights: Transgender Hub

The recent tragedy involving two transgender women of color in Orange County, CA – the death of Katya De La Riva and arrest of Valeria De La Luz for allegedly giving Katya silicone injections that authorities claim caused Katya’s death -- surfaces many of the issues faced by transgender people, and especially by low-income and immigrant transgender women of color – issues of acceptance, identity, discrimination, and transphobia.

Highlights of Lambda Legal's HIV and health care fairness work in 2014 and goals for 2015.