Latest Supreme Court Hearing Puts the Affordable Care Act in Jeopardy
Today, the Supreme Court hears yet another case challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This challenge takes up whether eliminating the penalty for not having health insurance makes the individual mandate unconstitutional, and consequently requires the whole law to fall. If that happens, more than 20 million people will become uninsured, with a disproportionate impact on low-income and underemployed people and those with existing health conditions. Further, this would eliminate protections for those with pre-existing conditions and gut the ACA’s non-discrimination protections. The ACA is critically important for LGBTQ+ people, and LGBTQ+ elders more specifically.
If the Affordable Care Act were overturned by the Supreme Court, the consequences for LGBTQ+ elders would be severe – especially in the time of COVID-19. LGBTQ+ older people are more likely than other older Americans to have serious health problems and more likely to be poor. That’s especially true for older lesbians, transgender elders, and LGBTQ+ elders of color. A ruling against the ACA would put LGBTQ+ elders at risk. That’s not what caring looks like.
“Amidst the public crisis that our country is grappling with in the midst of a global pandemic, we cannot responsibly entertain the possibility of tens of millions of people, including many LGBTQ+ elders, losing critically important health care coverage,” said SAGE CEO Michael Adams. “LGBTQ+ older people suffer from serious health disparities that are particularly consequential in the time of COVID-19. They need the Affordable Care Act. That’s why SAGE has joined several amicus briefs this year supporting the ACA’s non-discrimination protections. We’re a community that takes care of our own.”
As we continue to fight a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, we believe that we must do all that we can to honor and support LGBTQ+ elders who now, more than ever, need the protections and coverage afforded by the ACA. We must ensure that this population still has access to the foundational coverage and protections that the ACA provides.
