The passage of President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill on July 3 is expected to have consequences for LGBTQ+ Americans who rely on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace for their healthcare.
According to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, around 13 percent of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. – about 1.8 million people – rely on Medicaid for their primary health insurance.
Nonprofit advocacy group Georgia Equality said more than 40% of people living with HIV in the U.S. are on Medicaid. The impact on Georgia could be heavy, as the state has the highest number of new HIV infections in the country.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates Trump’s bill will cause more than 10 million Americans overall to lose their Medicaid coverage and millions more to lose care under Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
Leah Chan, Director of Health Justice at Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, estimated that 750,000 Georgians could lose their health insurance due to the bill.
KFF Health News reports that about 1.5 million Georgians are currently insured through the state’s version of the marketplace, Georgia Access, and as many as 250,000 could lose that coverage.
How many LGBTQ+ Georgians are under threat of losing Medicaid or ACA coverage is unknown.
According to the Washington Blade, a provision of Trump’s bill that would have blocked funding for gender-affirming care for transgender youth was ultimately struck from the legislation after the first trans member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, and out U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin shored up unified opposition to the proposal among Democrats.
