Obama health plan lacks LGBT provisions

President Barack Obama’s new health care proposal appears to be scrubbed of most of the gay provisions that were present in the House version of the bill.

Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a lesbian, fought to add most of those provisions to the bill. She said Monday she is not giving up. She called Obama’s plan “an important step forward,” but she adds “it is not the final word,” in an interview with Metro Weekly.

In fact, the plan can’t be called a bill yet. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the proposal “a starting point,” it is based on the Senate version of the bill and takes into consideration ideas from both Democrats and Republicans.

Shin Inouye, a spokesman for the White House with LGBT media, points out the proposal does include a “data collection” provision. The item calls for the creation of a health secretary to work toward collecting information on sexual orientation and gender identity (in addition to a host of other categories) to help identify health needs.

What’s missing?

“Most LGBT and HIV activists had supported the House bill because it included key LGBT specific provisions,” the Metro Weekly article states. “In addition to the data collection, it prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the provision of health care; enabled people with HIV and low incomes to obtain Medicare coverage earlier in the course of their illness; and eliminated the tax that gay employees must pay if their same-sex partners or spouses receive health coverage from their employers’ plan. Straight employees don’t pay that tax but, for gay couples, the coverage is characterized by the federal government as additional income for the gay employee.”

Baldwin said Monday she planed to ”continue to fight for all of my priorities in the final health care reform bill, including those related to LGBT health.”