Obamacare Case Threatens Millions With Loss of Preventative Care

About 150 million Americans, including 37 million children, may be cut off from potentially life-saving health care depending on the outcome of an Obamacare case set for oral arguments in a federal appeals court March 4.

The New Orleans-based US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is reviewing a decision that struck down aspects of an Affordable Care Act mandate that requires private insurers to pay in full for certain preventive care services.

The mandate is one of “most important aspects of the Affordable Care Act,” according to Stacey Lee, an attorney and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. And the case presents a vehicle for undermining the 2010 law that was intended to expand access to health care and lower costs for all Americans, she said.

It’s “a really big deal,” Lee said.

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At issue is a decision by one federal judge in Texas, who in March 2023 limited the types of cost-free services that must be covered by employer-provided health plans. Judge Reed O’Connor, of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, vacated no-cost coverage requirements for services ranging from cancer and mental health screenings to drugs that prevent new HIV infections . . .

The plaintiffs’ choice of a federal forum in which O’Connor is the only judge “wasn’t an accident,” Dach said. The judge struck down the ACA in its entirety in 2018, though the US Supreme Court overturned that decision.

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Greenbeard said:

It never ends. With the legislative door closed on them due to Obamacare's popularity with the public, they're always looking for judicial activism to help them claw away any health benefits from people that they can.

Obamacare Case Threatens Millions With Loss of Preventative Care


And always judge-shopping for the same anti-ACA wingnuts.

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mrjurrs said:

Hmmmm. How do you suppose they will decide this one?

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NWRatCon said:

Luck of the draw. Depends on who sits on the panel.

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mrjurrs said:

Hmmmm. How do you suppose they will decide this one?

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Greenbeard said:

I find that I’m only occasionally (pleasantly) surprised if I start by assuming the courts will do whatever your average frothing-at-the-mouth rightwinger would want them to.

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