Holy healthcare, Batman!
Toni Brayer, MD who writes in Every Thing Health
The Texan judiciary strikes again.
You have probably forgotten that Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) ensured that Health Insurance Companies cover preventive services. This includes immunizations, screening tests for cancer (mammograms, colon cancer, prostate cancer), blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol tests, physical exams and well-baby, well-child visits, HIV, and mental health services. Americans have benefited from this mandated coverage since 2010.
A Federal judge in Texas, who once said the ACA was unconstitutional, has struck down the requirement that preventive care be covered and that decision could affect more than 150 million people who would lose these "free" services. I say "free" because they are now covered under the exorbitant premiums that Insurance companies charge.
Insurers say that they will not claw back on this coverage that people have come to expect. But I see changes in formularies, co-pays, deductibles, and requirements for pre-authorization that seem to change month by month. I have absolutely no doubt that these preventive services will be whittled away one by one if this ruling is allowed to remain.
The ruling stemmed from a case brought by six individuals and two Christian-owned businesses who argued that they should not be mandated to offer coverage of HIV PrEP because they did not want to encourage "homosexual behavior."
Why make this change for these small businesses ? Do they want to "damn" those who have contracted HIV or prevent it? Has the Vatican taken a stand on this?
"Instead of attacking the coverage that patients have, we should be looking for ways to bolster the ACA and increase access to care." The US repeatedly ranks last in health outcomes compared to other industrialized nations and this will further widen the gap.
Today (Friday, March 31), President Biden appealed the decision and it will be heard in the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. "All preventive services are kind of up for grabs as we go through the appeals process," said Laurie Sobel, associate director for women's health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation.
It may ultimately go to the US Supreme Court.
Let's see of the rule of law overturns common sense and the Affordable Care Act.
Malignancy may start small but always metastasizes
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