The seemingly never-ending legal war over Obamacare returns Monday to a familiar battlefront: the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The latest case concerns the Affordable Care Act provision that mandates insurers cover preventive care services at no cost to patients. The appeals court is reviewing a district judge’s ruling that wiped away that requirement for certain preventive services – a ruling that was paused while the appeal plays out.
Two of the three circuit judges on the panel hearing arguments in the case, brought by employers and individuals in Texas, have shown previous hostility to former President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law. Not only will they be weighing whether to uphold the ruling that partially invalidated the mandate, they will also be deciding whether additional coverage requirements targeted by the challengers should be struck down, including no-cost coverage for some vaccines as well as for certain preventive health services for women and children.
The case, called Braidwood v. Becerra, is the latest significant challenge to the Affordable Care Act, though it does not pose the existential threat to the landmark law that previous lawsuits did. A previous suit that challenged the law’s validity also emerged out of Texas and moved through the 5th Circuit before it was shut down by the Supreme Court in 2021.
In the case now before 5th Circuit, the Biden administration is asking the appeals court to reverse a ruling by US District Judge Reed O’Connor that jeopardizes access to no-cost coverage for statins, screenings for certain cancers and HIV-prevention drugs, among other services. If allowed to take effect, O’Connor’s ruling would end the mandates for cost-free coverage of preventive care services that were recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force after Obamacare’s March…
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