BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Medical Sociology
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1569519
This article is part of the Research TopicNavigating Equality: Addressing Stigma and Discrimination Against Sexual and Gender Minorities in Access to Gender-Affirming HealthcareView all 4 articles
Insurance companies' lack of LGBTQ+ affirmation: Discrimination, distrust, and dissatisfaction among LGBTQ+ people
Provisionally accepted
- 1Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
- 2Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City, New York, United States
- 3Columbia College, Columbia University, New York City, New York, United States
- 4David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: LGBTQ+ individuals have historically faced and continue to experience stigma and discrimination in various areas, including healthcare. There is very limited data regarding LGBTQ+ people’s perceptions of their health insurer and health insurer workers.Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with a national sample of United States residents, who responded to questions about their healthcare, including experiences with their health insurer and health insurer workers.Results: Compared to cisgender, heterosexual people (n = 1400), LGBTQ+ people (n = 1234) reported significantly poorer experiences with their health insurer, including being dissatisfied with their health insurer; believing their health insurer is not their advocate; distrusting their health insurer; not knowing what is covered in their health plan; being dissatisfied with providers in their health plan; and not believing their health insurer meets their needs. Additionally, compared to cisgender, heterosexual people, LGBTQ+ people conveyed poorer experiences with health insurer workers, including health insurer workers not addressing them by their names; not being comfortable when interacting with them; not being coordinated; misgendering them; and being discriminatory toward them.Discussion: LGBTQ+ communities continue to face significant healthcare disparities, including stigma and discrimination from health insurers and health insurer workers. Longitudinal dedication to LGBTQ+ education, advocacy, and institutional reform is necessary to dismantle the entrenched discrimination in health insurer environments and create more equitable, supportive environments for all LGBTQ+ people.
Keywords: Discrimination, Insurance, Insurer, LGBTQ+, payer, stigma, Trust
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nowaskie, Blackwood, Garcia and Flautero. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jorge D Flautero, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.