THE LATEST: Following the March 30 decision from Judge Reed C. O’Connor of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Braidwood Mgmt., Inc. v. Becerra gutting the ACA’s no-cost preventive care requirement, a coalition of America’s leading professional organizations representing hundreds of thousands of physicians and health 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.  

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. Read our full statement. 

Background

The Affordable Care Act has been challenged in court by special interests a number of times since its enactment in 2010. The challenge in Braidwood Management v. Becerra was brought by several businesses and individuals that asked the court to rule that the ACA’s requirement that insurance plans cover certain preventive services recommended by expert committees and a federal government agency, at no out-of-pocket cost to the patient, is unconstitutional. They also asked the court to rule that the requirement to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medication for HIV prevention, violates their religious rights. 

On November 30, 2022, a coalition of America’s leading medical professional organizations representing hundreds of thousands of physicians, led by the American Medical Association and represented by Democracy Forward, submitted a friend of the court brief urging the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas not to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirement that insurance plans cover recommended preventive care services without out-of-pocket patient cost. As the brief explains, the research on preventive services is clear: no-cost preventive care – ranging from colonoscopies to mammograms – saves lives, saves money, improves health outcomes, and enables healthier lifestyles. The brief was filed in Braidwood Management v. Becerra.

Other groups joining the AMA in submitting the brief are the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Women’s Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, National Medical Association, National Hispanic Medical Association, and Infectious Diseases Society of America. 

The coalition warns that gutting the ACA’s preventive care requirements will lead many of their patients, including many with critical medical needs, to turn down necessary services because of the very financial barriers the ACA seeks to remove. The brief also cites studies showing that the ACA reduced racial disparities in the utilization of the required services, and that “those who experience the greatest financial barriers to care appear to benefit the most from cost-sharing elimination.” Studies have found that the ACA’s enactment increased the rate of cancer screenings, increased the use of general wellness services, and improved utilization and health outcomes among populations that have been subjected to discrimination. 

Because of the ACA, approximately 76 million individuals gained access to preventive care without cost-sharing and approximately 233 million individuals are currently enrolled in health plans that must cover preventive services without cost-sharing.