Hawaii Governor Signs 3 Pro-LGBTQ Bills into Law

metroweekly.com:

Breaking away from the trend of state governments implementing discriminatory legislation aimed at LGBTQ people, on June 16, Hawaii Governor David Ige signed three bills into law that advocates say will make life easier for members of the LGBTQ community.The first bill, known as the “Gender Affirming Treatment Act,” bans health insurers and insurance coverage providers from applying categorical or blanket exclusions denying coverage for gender-affirming treatments, or classifying such treatments as “cosmetic” — thereby requiring patients to pay for them out of pocket — when a medical provider has deemed them “medically necessary.”“The legislature finds that these arbitrary assessments of medical necessity are not evidence-based and interfere with the patient-physician relationship,” the bill reads. “”They also place transgender persons who are denied treatment at higher risk of suicide and depression.”The bill was prompted by efforts by the previous presidential administration and federal judges to whittle away at protections against sex-based discrimination within the Affordable Care Act that had previously been interpreted as applying to the transgender community.By enshrining protections into state law, any insurance provider who wishes to do business in Hawaii must ensure that gender-affirming treatments for gender dysphoria are covered, especially in cases where similar or identical treatments for cisgender people would otherwise be granted but for a patient’s gender identity.The ban on medical discrimination is wide-ranging, encompassing medical treatments such as facial feminization surgeries, breast augmentations, vocal training, hormone therapies, and other gender-affirming care.