Senior citizens gathering for lunch at the Center on Halsted recently were visited by Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Howard Koh, who was in the area promoting the health reform initiative signed into law in March by President Barack Obama.
Speaking in the John Baran Senior Center, Koh offered an overview of the benefits of healthcare reform, including specific details on the act's implications for LGBT seniors.
"Health reform strengthens the sense of health security for all people," Koh said. "That applies to everybody across the country, whether you have insurance or not." He touted various provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which he called a "transformative opportunity." Short-term effects of the Actportions of which will not be implemented until 2014include prohibitions on companies dropping beneficiaries if they become sick, and prohibitions on lifetime coverage limits.
Koh said that in July Obama unveiled a national strategy for combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. "This is a completely preventable epidemic," Koh said.
He said the president also asked the Department of Health and Human Services to draw up guidelines under which hospitals would be directed to "respect the rights of [ LGBT ] patients." That request, which Obama made in April, would cover hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid fundingmost hospitals in the U.S.and would give LGBT patients a greater ability to receive visitors and designate surrogates for decision-making. Koh said that the new guidelines are currently open for public comment.
He also said that the Obama administration is in the process of commissioning a new survey on LGBT health.
After Center on Halsted Senior Director of Public Programs Hope Barrett encouraged attendees to ask Koh "some tough questions," one person asked what had happened to the so-called public optionthe government-run health insurance option that was discarded during the debate over the Affordable Care Act. "We had a very rigorous debate on all options, including the public option," Koh said. "The way we got this opportunity for change was to build on the system we already have."
Questioners also asked about retirement benefits and healthcare affordability for seniors. One question involved Medicare coverage for people undergoing sex-reassignment surgery. The American Medical Association recognizes gender identity disorder as a medical condition that should be covered under public funding schemes like Medicare, the questioner saiddid the Obama administration agree?
"I'm going to need to hear more about the details of that," Koh said. "Please send us more information."