On January 27, 2022, the National Women’s Law Center submitted a comment on the proposed 2023 Benefits and Payment Parameters, an annual rule by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implementing various aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
Our comment urged HHS to restore several key nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals that had been rolled back by the previous administration. We also encouraged HHS to extend these nondiscrimination protections to people with intersex traits. Additionally, we offered a number of other recommendations to expand access to care and coverage. For example, we urged HHS to:
- Ban discriminatory benefit designs in Essential Health Benefits (EHBs), which disproportionately impact women of color, disabled women, and LGBTQI+ people, as well as prohibit insurers from substituting benefits between and within EHB categories
- Require health plans to include more essential community providers, which provide vital services for low-income and medically underserved communities
- Ensure that enrollees can gain coverage in Special Enrollment Periods without burdensome pre-enrollment verification requirements
- Restore requirements related to standardized options, which make it easier for people to choose plans
- Expand data collection requirements
Our full comment can be found here.