A federal judge in Fort Worth agreed Wednesday with a group of Christian conservatives that Affordable Care Act requirements to cover HIV prevention drugs violate their religious freedom.
“The virus doesn’t choose who to infect, it can infect anyone,” said Dr. Satish Mocherla, an infectious disease specialist at Legacy Community Health Services in Houston. “So why a particular demographic is being targeted is a mystery to us.”
Kelley was previously the named plaintiff in the case, but the name was changed last month “because the media coverage of this case has triggered a wave of threats and cyberbullying” against Kelley,The lawsuit specifically addresses PrEP, but O’Connor’s ruling, which addresses how the federal government can decide what preventive care is covered in employer health care plans, may end up having much more wide-reaching consequences, Hoffman said.
While implementation has not been as universal as hoped, fully funded preventive care through the ACA has been shown to be largely effective at improving health outcomes, reducing health care spending and“The idea that an employer can shop a la carte for policy coverage goes against what we have learned over the last decade in the effort to end the HIV epidemic,” said Carlo, the former Dallas County health director.
Allowing companies to drop free coverage would prevent many of Legacy’s patients from being able to afford the treatment, Mocherla said, and would reverse that historic trend of declining HIV rates.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Texas Judge Rules HIV Drug Mandate Violates Religious RightsA northern Texas judge ruled Wednesday that mandatory insurance coverage for PrEP, an HIV prevention medication, violates employers’ religious rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Read more »
Religious employers need not cover PrEP in their health plans, federal judge rulesU.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling could threaten access to sexual and reproductive health care for more than 150 million working Americans on employer-sponsored health care plans. The ruling will likely be appealed.
Read more »
Religious employers need not cover PrEP in their health plans, federal judge rulesThe judge's ruling could threaten access to sexual and reproductive health care for more than 150 million working Americans on employer-sponsored health care plans. PrEP HIV SexualHealth reproductivehealth Texas Health ChristianConservatives
Read more »
Judge in Texas rules HIV drug mandate violates religious freedomA judge in Texas on Wednesday ruled that a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires businesses to provide health insurance offering HIV-preventative drugs violates the religious freedom of a Christian-run business.
Read more »
Judge Rules Employers Can Deny Coverage for HIV Drug For Religious ReasonsA notoriously anti-LGBTQ conservative federal judge ruled that corporations can deny coverage for the life-saving HIV prevention drug PrEP based on “religious rights.”
Read more »
Texas judge rules coverage of anti-HIV medicine violates religious freedomLast year, the federal government required most insurance companies to cover the drug known as PrEP. But a group of Christian business owners claimed the mandate pushes them to “facilitate homosexual behavior.”
Read more »