Obamacare and the LGBT Community:
Obamacare is great for the LGBT Community
Elizabeth and I’s good friend at Stonewall Columbus, Lori Gum, recently published a great article on the impact of Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) on the LGBT Community. Lori attended the White House briefing on Obamacare and the LGBT Community and came back with lots of great information.
Lori has shocking statistics in her article:
At present, one in three of our LGBT community members does not have health insurance, and more than 67 percent of those uninsured have been so for more than two years. Our transgender community is six times less likely to be covered as the general population, and a whopping 72 percent of uninsured transgender individuals claim to have experienced discrimination in previous attempts to acquire healthcare coverage.These numbers alone confirm a dangerous healthcare crisis in our LGBT community, a community that continues to fight HIV/AIDS, has higher incidence of breast cancer than our heterosexual counterparts, struggles with mental-health issues brought on by societal stress and family estrangement, and experiences high rates of addiction to alcohol and tobacco — to name just a few of the threatening disparities.
However, Obamacare has implemented policies that protect the LGBT Community.
1. LGBT anti-discrimination protections regarding sexual identity AND gender identity have been built into the Affordable Care Act. No longer can ANY insurance company refuse you coverage or increase your premiums because you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Period.2. All “navigators” — enrollment counselors, marketplace phone operators and chat-line assistance people — must go through LGBT cultural competency” training before they are allowed to engage with the public.
Other great news on the benefits people will be receiving with Obamacare:
3. No insurance company will now be allowed to turn anyone away or charge more for pre-existing conditions. This is particularly important to our transgender community, because those individuals often have been denied coverage for exactly this reason.4. Same-sex married couples and their children can apply for family policies within the marketplaces if the marriage took place in a state that recognizes same-sex marriages, regardless of current state of residence or its laws (including Ohio).5. No lifetime dollar caps on benefits will be permitted, nor will you be disqualified from your benefits because of accumulated treatment costs. This will greatly help our community members with HIV/AIDS and breast cancer.6. Mental health and substance-abuse disorder services (including psychotherapy) must be offered by all participating marketplace insurance providers. Mental health screening will be available without co-pay or out-of-pocket costs.7. All health screenings such as mammograms, prostate cancer examinations and HIV/AIDS testing will be available without any out-of-pocket costs or co-pays.8. All transgender patients will be covered for hormone treatment and other transitional therapies. Coverage for gender reassignment surgery will not be mandatory in the marketplace but may be available under some of the plans that are offered.
How to sign up:
Honestly, I’ve been trying to review my options for the last week (since the Obamacare website went live) and have only been met with frustration as I outlined some here. But apparently Lori has been able to break through the backlog, as she details how to sign up. (I noticed that it seems awesomely easy.)
According to the article, it should take less than 15 minutes and you can sign up by phone, online, or in-person. Individuals who make less than $46,000 and couples who makes less than $94,000 will be eligible for discounts/tax credits.
When you get to the site (I’ve actually made it through this part before getting stopped), you’ll be asked for your name and email, then your state of residence. After that you (according to the article) must create a username and security question in order to create an account. After that you are free to explore the plans and decide which is right for you – a decision you have until the end of March to make.
Finally, thanks to Lori for being a great resource for the LGBT Community here in Columbus, Ohio – and thanks for writing great articles like this, that apply to LGBT Community members across the country.
If you wanted to read her article in it’s entirety here’s the link: http://outlookcolumbus.com/2013/10/obamacare-and-the-lgbt-community/
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