GLBT Americans have much to gain with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,
the health care reform law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010, according to a recent report issued by an LGBT-friendly progressive think tank.
Some of the benefits LGBT Americans could see due to the legislation, according to the report’s authors, include an expansion of Medicaid eligibility for many people unable to afford health insurance or health care; increased cultural competency on LGBT issues for medical professionals; and improved data collection to better identify and address health disparities within the LGBT community.

"Only one provision (Section 5306, regarding participation by people of ’different genders and sexual orientations’ in mental and behavioral health education and training programs) explicitly mentions the LGBT community, but the law as a whole implicitly recognizes the toll that disparities, discrimination, and inequity are taking on gay and transgender people as part of the fabric of American society," concludes the report.

Titled "Changing the Game: What Health Care Reform Means for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Americans," the 31-page report was issued by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with Democratic ties that has offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

It was co-authored by the center’s Jeff Krehely and Kellan Baker with the National Coalition for LGBT Health. They argue that despite intense debate about the controversial law, whose provisions started being rolled out last fall and is set to be fully implemented in 2014, its impact on LGBT people and their families "remains largely unexplored."

One of the main benefits is that by 2014, when having health care will be a mandate, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny someone coverage for a pre-existing condition, such as being HIV-positive or having breast cancer.

According to the report there are already insurance coverage options listed on http://www.healthcare.gov where consumers can find "pre-existing condition plans and coverage for domestic partners in states that recognize these relationships."

Herb Schultz, the openly gay Western regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has been promoting the health care act’s benefits before LGBT audiences since it began to take effect last fall.

Bay Area Reporter , when asked how the reforms help LGBT people, Schultz pointed to the many preventive health care services all insurance plans will be required to provide without charging co-pays for, help with the cost of prescription drugs for disabled people and those on Medicare, and tax credits for small business owners who provide health insurance to their employers.

He also pointed out that starting in 2011, health insurers will be required to spend 80 to 85 cents of every dollar on health care or benefits. If they don’t, they will be penalized.

"If those insurers don’t hit that target, they will have to decrease the premiums or provide rebates to consumers. That is a significant step to making health care more affordable and transparent to people," he said.

As administration officials work on implementation of the law, Krehely and Baker in their report point out several areas where more advocacy by the LGBT community and its allies is needed. Two of the key suggestions they make are that the state-based health insurance exchanges, aimed at providing affordable insurance plans, must include LGBT non-discrimination policies and any definitions about families should not be based solely on marriage or adoption laws so as not to exclude LGBT families.

They also call for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity demographic questions in federal health surveys, something LGBT advocates have been stepping up pressure to see be adopted.

"Because LGBT people face barriers to health insurance and evidence-based, culturally competent care, the new law has much potential to benefit this community. Unfortunately, the law does not make explicit calls for LGBT-specific programs, care, and services. But with strategic advocacy efforts in the next year or two, the law’s implementation can be crafted to maximize its positive impact on LGBT people," write the authors.

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/ ... _lgbt.html.