Photo: Colleen Locke
Kate Eshghi, senior vice president and general counsel for UMass Memorial Health, spoke to the UMass Chan Medical School community about navigating the legal landscape for LGBTQIA+ health care during the Diversity and Inclusion Office’s 13th annual Convocation Celebration on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
“I want to emphasize that our vision at UMass Memorial Health is to be the best place to give care and the best place to get care for everyone,” Eshghi said during the hybrid event. “There are no exceptions. There are no footnotes. It’s not meant to be the best place for just some or certain people, but the best place for everyone, and that includes our LGBTQIA+ caregivers, patients and community.”
Eshghi provided a high-level overview of the impact executive orders and federal funding cuts have had on gender-affirming care since January and discussed the status of state bans and court cases at the state and federal levels.
Eshghi noted that Medicaid is the largest insurance provider for children, and that according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, LGBTQIA+ adults are twice as likely as non-LGBTQIA+ adults to rely on Medicaid as their primary insurance. Ten state Medicaid programs exclude coverage for gender affirming care for all ages, with two excluding coverage for pediatric patients, Eshghi said, adding that more than 20 health care systems and hospitals have shut down gender affirming programs for children, adolescents and adults because of regulatory and legal risks. This includes Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the largest provider of gender affirming care for children.
Following the talk, Jorge Sanchez, MEd, program director for diversity and inclusion at ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, shared a link to the resource and library guide that the Advocacy Subcommittee of the Committee on Equal Opportunity and Diversity has created with the Lamar Soutter Library.
“This particular audience, both on Zoom and in this room, is in such an important position in academic health care to use the expertise that you have, that you’re developing, to continue to work, to support your patients and to support your colleagues,” Eshghi said. “Ask your colleagues, ‘What do you need from me? I know you do this important work. I’m so grateful you do this important work. What can I do to support you in this work?’”
