Health Care Civil Rights : How Discrimination Law Fails Patients

Abstract

Focusing on the provision of gender-affirming care, Health Care Civil Rights analyzes the difficulties and potential of discrimination law in health care settings. The application of civil rights law could be a powerful response to health inequalities in the US, but conservative challenges and the complex and fragmented nature of our health care system have limited the real-world success of this strategy. Revealing deep divides and competing interests that reverberate through patient experiences, insurance claims, and courtroom arguments, Anna Kirkland explains what health care civil rights are, how they work in theory and practice, and how to strengthen them. ""Brilliantly reveals how antidiscrimination law's lofty goals are no match for the US health care system's pathologies. Providing more than just a captivating read on trans patients' fates, Anna Kirkland offers a blueprint for studying minority rights and the political economy of health."" — Joanna Wuest, author of Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement ""A meticulously documented, theoretically poignant, and exquisitely written study of the insufficiency of civil rights policy in addressing systemic health inequalities, concluding with sound recommendations for alleviating the failures of health policy and practice."" — stef m. shuster, author of Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender ""Informed by extensive fieldwork, this innovative book is written in a refreshingly engaging style that makes room for both an intellectually incisive argument and crystal-clear, practical pointers for correcting discriminatory patterns that harm vulnerable patients."" — Colleen Grogan, author of Grow and Hide: The History of America's Health Care State