This webinar provides Legal Network attorneys information about federal laws that protect against sex discrimination in health care, specifically the Health Care Rights Law, also known as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. Attorneys can learn what the Trump-Pence administration is doing to roll back these protections and how they can engage.
In addition, Legal Network attorneys can hear from litigators how the law can be used successfully to protect patients despite the administration’s efforts. Litigators will discuss intake issues commonly seen through the Legal Network, such as denial of insurance coverage for dependents, discriminatory benefit plan design, sexual harassment and assault, as well as discrimination because of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Download the slides: Sex Discrimination in Health Care PowerPoint
Read the transcript: Sex Discrimination in Health Care Webinar
Our speakers include:
Michelle Banker – Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center
Michelle Banker is Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. She focuses on litigation to promote reproductive rights and access to health care, including reproductive health care. Before joining NWLC, Ms. Banker was an attorney at Murphy Anderson PLLC, where she litigated on behalf of workers and unions in wage and hour matters and other workplace disputes. She also was an attorney at Covington & Burling LLP, where she worked on complex civil litigation and criminal matters and performed pro bono work in cases involving violations of constitutional rights. Ms. Banker clerked for the Honorable Carol Bagley Amon, then-Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She also previously performed state policy research and advocacy on reproductive health issues for NWLC and volunteered for the National Health Law Program, focusing on reproductive health policy. Ms. Banker graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Kelli Garcia – Director of Reproductive Justice Initiatives and Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center
Kelli Garcia is Director of Reproductive Justice Initiatives and Senior Counsel. She works on a range of issues to advance reproductive justice and ensure that all people are able to make decisions about their bodies, health, sexuality, and families with dignity and autonomy. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Garcia was a law fellow at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, where she worked on scholarship related to global health and human rights and health care reform. Dr. Garcia was also an Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fellow at Yale Law School and previously worked at the Center where she began as a fellow and was promoted to counsel. Dr. Garcia is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dale Melchert – Staff Attorney, Transgender Law Center
Dale Melchert is thrilled to join TLC’s litigation team. Prior to joining TLC, Dale represented LGBTQ and HIV-affected survivors of violence in a client-centered, holistic practice at the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP). There, for three years, he represented survivors in family law, housing, matrimonial, immigration, name change and discrimination matters in the five boroughs of New York City. He also organized with, and trained other services providers to increase access to services and resources for LGBTQ survivors. Dale graduated from CUNY School of Law in 2014 with an emphasis on poverty law practice for transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers. He was the recipient of the 2014 Dave Fields Prize for Student Leadership and Achievement, and served as the Stonewall Foundation Fellow at NYLAG’s LGBT Law Project coordinating its life planning clinic in 2013. On the weekend Dale is an enthusiastic attendee of Trans Boxing NYC and enjoys amateur culinary adventures.
Watch this related video: Patients Are Saying #MeToo.