On Sept. 7, a federal judge partially struck down the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) requirement that insurers cover certain types of preventive care.
The ACA requires group health plans to cover more than 100 preventive health services with no cost to patients. These include routine vaccines, well-child visits, and screenings for cancer, depression, hepatitis B and C, hypertension and osteoporosis.
Judge Reed O'Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas concluded that the Preventive Services Task Force (PSTF), an expert panel that releases binding recommendations for what preventive care must be covered under the law, violated the U.S. Constitution because its members are not appointed by the president or confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
"Birth control will still be covered because it's recommended by another agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which the court kept intact," said Andrew Twinamatsiko, associate director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O'Neill Institute at Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. "The court ruled that HRSA recommendations were constitutionally valid because, unlike the PSTF, HRSA is answerable to the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. The same goes for vaccines that are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Those immunizations stay, as well, for the same reason HRSA recommendations stay."
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