House Passes Bill 216-211; Providers Face Arrest
The Trump administration is facing a new legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by an upcoming policy, effective Thursday, that eliminates coverage for gender-related healthcare in federal health insurance programs.
The complaint, submitted on Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of the employees, addresses an August statement from the Office of Personnel Management indicating the end of coverage for “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in health insurance plans for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers.
The complaint argues that the refusal to provide coverage for gender-transition care constitutes sex-based discrimination and requests that the personnel office revoke the policy.
“This policy is not about cost or care—it is about driving transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said in a statement announcing the action.
The complaint submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission includes statements from four current federal employees at the State Department, Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service who would be directly impacted by the removal of coverage.
The complaint states that a Postal Service employee has a daughter for whom doctors have recommended puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy due to her diagnosed gender dysphoria. These treatments would not be covered under the new OPM policy.
The complaint indicates that the workers are asserting the claim on behalf of themselves and a “class of similarly situated federal employees.”
The Trump administration has implemented additional measures to limit healthcare access for transgender Americans, especially minors. In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed measures to prohibit gender-transition care for minors, including a policy that would deny Medicare and Medicaid funding to hospitals offering such services to children.
High-ranking Trump officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., characterize gender-affirming care for minors as “malpractice.”
However, such restrictions contradict the recommendations of prominent medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Before Christmas, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would criminalize gender transition treatments for minors, such as surgery and hormone supply, and punish providers with up to ten years in federal prison.
On a vote of 216 to 211, the bill—which civil rights organizations claimed was among the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress—was approved nearly entirely along party lines.
It is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, where it would require a bipartisan alliance to move forward.
However, the ultraconservative Republican majority and President Trump’s priorities were reflected in its discussion and passage in the House.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed it through the House after she demanded earlier this month that Speaker Mike Johnson bring her bill to the floor in exchange for her backing of the defense policy measure she was otherwise threatening to sabotage.
According to Greene, the legislation fulfilled one of Trump’s major campaign pledges, and Congress must take action to formalize his executive order banning gender-affirming medical procedures.
“Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl,” she said on Wednesday on the House floor, pointing at a poster board of a child who had undergone such a surgery.
Greene has recently gained odd new respect from several top Democrats for disagreeing with the president on a number of important issues.
She abruptly announced last month that she was leaving Congress one year before the end of her term.
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