Tong says Trump administration’s new health care rule invites discrimination

May 21-- May 21--Sensing danger in a Trump administration move to relax protections against discrimination in health care, Connecticut Tuesday joined a group of 23 states and cities in a federal lawsuit to block the erosion of those safeguards.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has endorsed a rule, effective in July, that would allow health providers and employees to refuse to provide treatment based on someone's "religious beliefs or moral convictions," according to a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has followed New York's lead, saying the rule "panders to an anti-choice and homophobic fringe," and endangers people, particularly women and LGBTQ individuals, "who already face needless hurdles [in] accessing healthcare."

The rule grants a wide range of health care institutions and individuals a right to refuse care, based on the provider's own personal views.

But New York, Connecticut and the other coalition members allege the expansion is far too broad, enabling ambulance drivers, emergency room doctors, and even receptionists and customer service representatives at insurance companies to deny care.

In contrast, said Tong's office, Connecticut requires that health care professionals provide care in emergency situations, obtain informed consent from patients before providing or denying care, and to arrange for alternative care when providers are unable to offer treatment for personal or ethical reasons.

Joining New York and Connecticut in filing the lawsuit are the City of New York, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, the City of Chicago, and Cook County, Illinois.

The federal lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, seeks to prevent the rule from going into effect.

The rule would also prohibit hospitals from fully vetting certain key employees, Tong's office said in a news release Tuesday.

For example, a hospital could not ask a prospective nurse if he or she "objected to administering a measles vaccination-- even if this was a core duty of the job in the middle of an outbreak of the disease."

The rule would allow an emergency room doctor "to refuse to assist a woman who arrived with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, even if the woman's life was in jeopardy," Tong's office said.

Gov. Ned Lamont said a rule expanding the opportunity to deny care doesn't sit well in a state that takes "pride in everything we've done to protect the rights of women and other marginalized groups." He said this was particularly true "when it comes to ensuring that government will not get in the way of a woman having the ability to make her own medical decisions."

Under the rule, the federal government could terminate funding to those states and cities it deems to be in non-compliance. Tong's office said that could means billions of dollars in lost funding for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, HIV/AIDS and STD prevention, and substance abuse treatment.

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