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Appeals court suspends ruling that threatened free preventive health care

    A federal appeals court on Monday temporarily blocked a lower court decision that overturned the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that all health plans fully cover certain preventive health services.

    The decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans will overturn a March decision that threatened insurance coverage for recommended services such as teen depression screening and drugs that prevent transmission of HIV. The Justice Department had appealed the decision, and the appeal court’s adjournment remains in effect while the appeals process continues.

    The ruling earlier this spring overturned one of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular requirements by removing financial barriers to a range of preventive services. It took effect immediately nationwide and had the potential to affect about 150 million Americans enrolled in private health insurance, either through employer-sponsored plans or through the Obamacare marketplaces.

    While the case is being reviewed, full coverage for preventive services is required by law.

    Earlier this year, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that insurers were not required to cover any of the services recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force since 2010. His reasoning: The task force is not appointed by Congress and therefore did not have the constitutional authority to decide what services a health insurance company should cover.

    That ruling was based on previous ones: in 2018, Judge O’Connor had ruled that the ACA was unconstitutional (although the Supreme Court later overturned that decision). Last September, he ruled that the ACA’s mandate that employers reimburse a daily HIV prevention pill called PrEP violated a company’s religious freedoms.

    For now, employers will still be required to provide free coverage for preventive services. But the Fifth Circuit is conservative, and the case could eventually end up in the Supreme Court as yet another challenge to the Obamacare health law.