Advocates Sue HHS Over Rollback of ACA Non-Discrimination Rule

This article was written by Adam Cancryn and Dan Diamond originally published by Politico on July 10, 2020

Multiple groups on Thursday backed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that last month’s rollback of the Affordable Care Act’s non-discrimination protections violated the Administrative Procedures Act by “being contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

The rule, which also struck provisions to boost language access for limited English speakers, has been championed by HHS as a regulatory fix after a federal judge blocked key parts of the original ACA policy from taking effect.

Notably, the rule was published in the Federal Register four days after the Supreme Court separately ruled to uphold LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections, a decision that Democrats and some lawyers argue negates the Trump administration rule.

— Who’s suing: The National Women’s Law Center, the Transgender Law Center, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School and law firm Hogan Lovells.

“This illegal rule puts the lives of women, LGBTQA+ individuals, those with limited English proficiency and the tens of thousands who live at the intersection of these identities at risk,” said NWLC’s Fatima Goss Graves in a statement.

A separate group of LGBTQ clinics and other organizations filed suit against the policy last month.