New York Attorney General LetitiaJames. (Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM)
New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading an effort by23 states to oppose new federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) discrimination regulations.
|The administration of President Donald Trump recently adoptedthe new regulations to repeal anti-discrimination regulationsadopted during the administration of former President BarackObama.
|The Obama administration adopted the original regulations in aneffort to implement Section 1557 of the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act (PPACA).
|The original regulations included detailed provisions intendedto protect the rights of people with disabilities, people withlimited ability to speak and understand English, and people who arelesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
|A copy of the complaint filed by LetitiaJames and other attorneys general is available here.
|PPACA is one of the two statutes included in the Affordable CareAct.
|Trump administration officials have argued that, although manyof the goals of the Obama administration regulations wereadmirable, the Obama administration officials went beyond thestatutory authority provided by PPACA.
|In addition to James, the list of attorneys general opposing theTrump administration's approach includes attorneys general from anumber of other high-population states, including California,Pennsylvania, Illinois and North Carolina.
|James' coalition filed a complaint for declaratory andinjunctive relief Monday in the U.S. District Court for theSouthern District of New York.
|The case is State of New York et al. v. U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services et al. (Case Number 1:20-cv-5583).
|"By rolling back rules that ensure the ACA protects allAmericans, the president is unlawfully giving health care providersand insurers license to deny care to LGBTQ+ individuals, those whodo not speak English, and women," James said in a comment includedin the lawsuit filing announcement. "It is never acceptable to denyhealth care to Americans who need it, but it is especiallyegregious to do so in the middle of a pandemic.
|In the complaint, the states acknowledge that many of the stateshave state-level equivalents of the federal antidiscriminationrules that have been canceled.
|But the states saying having their agencies investigateallegations of discrimination would be expensive.
|In Illinois, for example, processing a discrimination charge infiscal year 2019 was $4,695.65, according to the complaint.
|In Minnesota, the plaintiffs say, the cost of investigating atypical state-level discrimination charge this year is about $2,200to $3,000.
|The plaintiffs also contend that confusion about the changescould cause some people to avoid getting needed care for COVID-19,and that people's reluctance to get needed care could hurt effortsto reduce the spread of the virus that causes the disease.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.
