DOJ files appeal after federal judge strikes down key ObamaCare provisions
Emily Jacobs
Video Embed
The Biden administration has filed to appeal a federal judge’s decision overturning some provisions of the Affordable Care Act requiring insurers to provide certain preventive care services.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who is overseeing a case brought by Christian-owned businesses and six individuals in Texas opposing the landmark healthcare law, struck down the provision in a ruling on Thursday. The ruling would keep a number of preventive care provisions in the 2010 bill from being enforceable, including some cancer, heart, and STD screenings and tobacco programs that Obamacare required insurers to cover. Those programs are included on the list of recommended treatments issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
TEXAS JUDGE STRIKES DOWN ACA PREVENTIVE CARE MANDATE ON OBAMACARE 13-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Affected services include screenings for cancers, such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and lung cancer, diabetes screenings, various screenings and interventions for pregnant people, statin use to prevent cardiovascular disease, vision screening for children, and more.
In its Friday notice, the Justice Department asked that O’Connor’s ruling be put on pause while the appeal is litigated. The DOJ said it would also appeal O’Connor’s ruling from September of last year that the requirement to cover the HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pills violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of the Christian company that brought the suit. PrEP is found to reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by 99% when taken as prescribed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
O’Connor opted to keep preventive services coverage policy in effect while making the September ruling, instead asking both parties for additional information ahead of his final ruling on Thursday.
The ACA was enacted under then-President Barack Obama in 2010. Since then, the law has faced a wave of legislative and legal challenges. House Republicans voted to repeal the entirety of the healthcare bill in 2017, though the effort failed in the GOP-held Senate after then Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) famously announced his opposition in front of the entire chamber. In the courts, the ACA has faced more than 2,000 legal challenges, with O’Connor himself presiding over a number of such cases.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
He rendered the entire ACA unconstitutional in 2018, a ruling that was overturned by the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision.
Kaelan Deese contributed to this report.