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On March 30, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, released a ruling regarding Braidwood Management v. Becerra.
The ruling strikes down a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that demands private health insurance plans to cover preventative healthcare services without patient cost-sharing.
The Affordable Care Act preventative healthcare provision is unconstitutional, District Court says. (Photo: Forbes)
Arguments on Affordable Care Act’s Preventative Services
The Braidwood Management sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra debating that the ACA’s preventative services coverage mandates are unconstitutional.
According to them, Affordable Care Act’s preventative services violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution by giving the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) power to make rules regarding coverage.
According to Ballotpedia News, the company further argued that the Affordable Care Act’s Preventative Services requirements violate and break the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) because it is mandating the company to cover preventative services and medications that prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
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Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Ruling
On September 7, 2022, Judge Reed O’Connor issued the first ruling in Braidwood Management v. Becerra.
He held that Affordable Care Act’s Preventative Services requirement that the company covers specifically the preventative services and medications that control sexually transmitted diseases violates the RFRA.
Judge O’Connor later issued a March 2023 order clearing any federal agency action that has happened since ACA’s passage to enforceUSPSTF-recommended preventative services published after March 23, 2010.
HHS petitioned the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on March 31, 2023.
Becerra argued in a statement, “Efforts to strip away access to preventive health care are harmful and unacceptable.”
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