The U.S. agency that oversees Medicare is taking out questions on enrollment application forms that ask people about their sexual orientation and gender identity.
In response to President Trump’s executive order requiring federal agencies to scrub references to “gender ideology,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “will be removing the voluntary Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification (SOGI) questions” from certain forms, according to an email the agency sent to health insurance companies on Wednesday.
Medicare beneficiaries use those forms to sign up for Medicare Advantage plans, prescription drug plans, and a specific program that helps low-income people afford drugs.
Medicare rolled out the forms with sexual orientation and gender fields during Medicare’s open enrollment window this past fall. The questions were optional, and were included alongside questions about applicants’ race and whether they work.
The agency previously said the information would improve its understanding of who is enrolling in Medicare Advantage and prescription drug coverage.
“CMS is committed to addressing health inequities and the underlying disparities within the health care system,” Medicare officials wrote in a memo in July. “To reduce gaps, we must begin with accurate data collection. We believe collecting this data will meaningfully advance equity mandates by resulting in a more granular and better understanding of the diversity of the Medicare population, including important differences in health and health care needs and experiences.”
Medicare’s enrollment form change comes as other federal agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have removed websites and databases about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Top CDC advisers pushed the Trump administration to explain the abrupt removal of the information. A judge this week ordered all government agencies to restore websites that were taken down due to Trump’s “gender ideology” order.
