Federal Appeals Court Issues Mixed Ruling On Christian Challenge To Insurance Coverage For PrEP Medications

NBC News reports:

A federal appeals court on Friday found unconstitutional a key component of the Affordable Care Act that grants a health task force the effective authority to require that insurers both cover an array of preventive health interventions and screenings and refrain from imposing out-of-pocket costs for them.

The lawsuit centered on the objections of a coalition of small businesses in Texas to the requirement that they cover a drug for HIV prevention, known as PrEP, in their employee health plans.

The appeals court did not, however, overturn the related ACA pillar; the practical, immediate impacts of its ruling apply narrowly to the plaintiffs in this case.

Reuters reports:

The panel found that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas had gone too far by blocking the mandate nationwide in March 2023, and instead blocked its enforcement only against the Christian businesses that brought the lawsuit. O’Connor’s ruling had been on hold while the appeals court considered the case.

While the 5th Circuit’s ruling allows the government to continue enforcing the mandate, it could provide support for other employers or insurers wishing to challenge it.

In their 2020 lawsuit, the businesses objected to covering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV on religious grounds, but also argued that the entire mandate violated the U.S. Constitution by having an HHS-appointed task force choose what treatments must be covered.

In their initial filing, the businesses said they objected to PrEP coverage because the medications “encourage homosexual behavior.”

The suit was brought by extremist anti-LGBTQ activist Steven Hotze [photo], who last year was ejected from a Texas Senate hearing after repeatedly calling transgender people “pedophiles.”

Hotze appeared on JMG in September 2022 when he explained how COVID vaccines are designed to connect people to the internet “so you can be mind-controlled by artificial intelligence.”

In April 2022, Hotze was charged with two felonies related to a bizarre 2020 “voter fraud search” incident.

Hotze appeared on JMG that year when he left a voice mail for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, telling him to “shoot to kill” Black Lives Matter activists.

You may recall that Steven Hotze has compared gays to “communist termites” eating away at America’s moral fabric. He is also fond of declaring that it’s now a hate crime to denounce homosexuality.

It was Hotze who bankrolled the successful campaign to repeal Houston’s “wicked, evil, Satanic” LGBT rights ordinance, during which he compared gays to rapists and murderers.

BREAKING: Appeals court finds Obamacare pillar unconstitutional in suit over HIV-prevention drug
: I report for NBC: If the Supreme Court ultimately takes the case and overturns the pillar, this could have a big impact on out-of-pocket costs for many preventive tests and… pic.twitter.com/zbThnLbR2R

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) June 21, 2024

In response to Friday’s ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, public health advocates expressed concern to me that, should the Supreme Court ultimately void the task force’s authority, this could compromise the nation’s already sluggish HIV fight. pic.twitter.com/dDw1ahK20u

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) June 21, 2024

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