Hillary Schneller, Fellow

Strong federal protections against sex discrimination exist in the workplace and in schools, and have existed, for sixty and forty years, respectively. Of course, there’s a lot of work to do to enforce those protections and build on them. In health care, no such broad antidiscrimination law existed.

You may need to re-read that. People generally do a double-take when they hear there has been no big prohibition against sex discrimination in health care until just 3 years ago. “Did I really read that right??” You did.

We needed a Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education program, for health care. Finally, now, we got one!

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) adds this important protection against sex discrimination in health care. But, that’s not all.

For one, Section 1557 expands existing protections against discrimination in the health care area based on race, color, national origin, disability, and age. Specifically, the law protects individuals from discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, gender identity, and sex stereotypes in:

• the health programs or activities of recipients of federal financial assistance, like all operations of a hospital or the health plans of entities that receive federal grants;
• federally-administered programs, such as Medicare or the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan; or
• any entity established under Title I of the ACA, including the health insurance exchanges being established in the states—the places people will go to compare their options for and purchase health insurance

Or, put more simply: the law’s reach is broad and impacts virtually all aspects of health care.

As challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage provision pile up—on the theory that somehow more lawsuits equals more legal merit—the United Nations declares that access to contraception is a basic human right.

After recovering from shock that some in the United States would disagree with the United Nations (sarcasm!), take a look at some of the things the UN Population Fund report points out. Access to contraception is a fundamental part of women’s ability to make decisions for ourselves and realize other rights—including getting an education and participating in the workforce, both of which in turn improve nations’ economies. And financial, cultural, and legal barriers to contraception infringe on women’s rights.