The largest employer health benefits program for the federal government announced a last-minute policy change on Friday that it would no longer cover gender-affirming care for adults next year, HuffPost has learned.
This directive, which was quietly issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s health care program, is the latest policy to target access to health care for transgender federal workers. A link to the change was first cited on a blog by Ermer & Suter, a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents federal health insurance plans.
The policy change, signed by Associate Director of Healthcare and Insurance D. Shane Stevens, expands upon a similar directive issued by the agency at the end of January to block such care for minors up to age 19 on federal plans.
President Donald Trump’s Week 1 executive order blocking federal funds from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children also included a provision to exclude that same coverage from both the Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs. The administration finalized a rule in June to modify the Affordable Care Act, removing requirements that insurance providers cover gender-affirming care as essential, which advocates say will decrease the number of plans that cover that care.
