Cabinet-level nature-distortion jackboots

The Justice Department's "decree" about restrooms has been getting all the attention, but HHS simultaneously got in on the you-will-accept-gender-fluidity-as-real-or-else action:

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a final regulation Friday that will pressure health insurers to cover sex change operations, which could then be subsidized by taxpayers through Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.

The final rule comes the same day the Obama administration ordered schools to let children use whatever bathroom or locker room matches “their chosen gender identity,” or risk losing federal funding.

The agency released its final “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities” rule, which enforces Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.

The regulation “prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability; enhances language assistance for individuals with limited English proficiency; and protects individuals with disabilities,” the agency said in a release.

Doctors and health insurers also cannot deny “health care or health coverage based on an individual’s sex, including discrimination based on pregnancy, gender identity, and sex stereotyping.”

In a fact sheet on the portion of the rule regarding sex discrimination, the government explains that health care providers cannot refuse to cover all services related to a sex change—such as hormone therapy, breast implants, and the surgery itself—as a matter of policy.

“Categorical coverage exclusions or limitations for all health care services related to gender transition are discriminatory,” the agency said.

The rule also includes a bathroom provision, stating that “individuals must be treated consistent with their gender identity, including in access to facilities.”

Additionally, health care providers “may not deny or limit treatment for any health services that are ordinarily or exclusively available to individuals of one gender based on the fact that a person seeking such services identifies as belonging to another gender.”

The regulation will apply to virtually all hospitals, health care providers, and insurance companies.

Post-America gets loonier and more totalitarian by the hour.