Today, a coalition of America’s leading professional organizations representing hundreds of thousands of physicians and medical professionals, led by the American Medical Association, submitted a brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit urging the court to keep in place the Affordable Care Act’s extremely popular preventive care requirement. The coalition is represented by Democracy Forward. 

Maddy Gitomer, Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward and counsel to amici, issued the following statement upon the filing of the coalition’s brief:

“Gutting the Affordable Care Act’s preventive care requirement is unprecedented and harmful, and will leave millions without meaningful access to life-saving preventive services – such as cancer screenings, services critical to women’s health, and vaccinations and screenings for children. This requirement has been in place under the law for over a decade and healthcare professionals have made clear that this essential provision saves lives. 

With this brief, medical professionals across the country are sounding the alarm that gutting the preventive care requirement will jeopardize access to essential care for millions of Americans. The fact the coalition is even larger than the last time medical professionals weighed in on this case makes clear just how important it is that the court maintains this requirement as the case continues to progress. 

We urge the appellate court to grant the government’s request for a partial stay of Judge O’Connor’s decision.”

The coalition of amici submitting the brief includes the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Women’s Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, National Medical Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Chest Physicians, the National Hispanic Medical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

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