Long story short: Healthcare access is in the spotlight — is your business prepared?

By Alyssa Place, This is my expertise

Published July 1, 2022 11:03 AM EDT 2 Min Read

Healthcare has been top of mind this week in particular, as Americans grapple with the fallout from the end of Roe v. Wade. But healthcare access is regularly a challenge for many employees, and it’s up to employers to help them.

For the LGBTQ community, discrimination in their healthcare experience can have lifelong consequences in access to care, medication and insurance coverage. And it’s only going to get worse, warns Dr. Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, an associate professor at Columbia University and a social psychologist. She shared the hurdles LGBTQ individuals face and how employers can reshape a broken system.

In 2022, one in eight LGBTQ Americans reported that they experienced discrimination from their health insurance provider, according to HealthCare.com, a search tool for healthcare consumers. In practice, this discrimination can translate to an overall lack of coverage and access to gender-affirming medication and procedures, fertility treatments and medication for HIV prevention, says Dr. Lelutiu-Weinberger.

“Many LGBTQ people avoid or delay medical care because they’ve encountered a lot of discrimination already and fear that they will be discriminated against,” she told associate editor Deanna Cuadra. “So they end up in the emergency room rather than accessing more preventive services, and urgent intervention is more expensive.”

Alyssa Place

Editor-in-chief

Alyssa Place is the editor-in-chief of Employee Benefit News and has been with the team since 2019. Her work covers mental health, DEI, women at work, financial wellness, retirement and workplace … Read full bio

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