Preventive Health Care Will Be Free While Challenge To Obamacare Mandate Proceeds

Health insurance companies should continue to pay for preventive services such as cervical cancer screening tests and medication to prevent HIV infection, at least for the time being.

A 2020 lawsuit filed by North Texas residents challenges an important provision of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The plaintiffs are challenging health insurance companies' obligation to cover the entire cost of preventive healthcare services, saying they refuse to buy insurance, birth control, testing for sexually transmitted infections and PrEP, a drug therapy that increases the risk of HIV -Infection reduced, includes.

In March, US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth sided with the plaintiffs and ruled portions of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. O'Connor's ruling applies nationwide and is effective immediately, meaning insurance companies can legally begin billing patients for routine healthcare services.

The federal government appealed the case and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay pending appeal. The court asked attorneys for both sides to reach a compromise on the order pending the court's final decision. The lawyers reached an agreement on Monday.

The comparison said that the O'Connor ruling would only apply to the plaintiffs for the time being. The plaintiffs include several Tarrant County residents, the Tarrant County Orthodontic Office and a Houston-area corporation. The plaintiffs originally opposed the law because they opposed health services such as birth control on religious and moral grounds. The plaintiffs are "unwilling to purchase health insurance that subsidizes contraceptive drugs (PrEP) that promote homosexual behavior and injecting drug use," the lawsuit states.

The fifth circuit appeals court has yet to approve the settlement. The court is expected to rule on the case later this year.

The lawsuit could have far-reaching ramifications if O'Connor's preliminary ruling is upheld. When enacted in 2010, the Affordable Care Act required insurers to pay the full cost of all healthcare services deemed “preventive”. O'Connor ruled that the US Preventive Services Task Force, one of the groups that decides what types of treatments are truly preventative, doesn't have the authority to do so. His decision doesn't overturn the entire law, instead focusing on the health care recommendations the task force has been making since 2010.

Nurses and the Affordable Care Act