Both sides of the lawsuit filed a draft agreement with the court on Tuesday, which states that the individual Texas businesses and workers who have sued over this obligation should be protected while the case moves through court. but still stipulates that the rule should apply to everyone else. It features employer-provided insurance and an individual market for Obamacare.
Disruptions to the insurance market are likely to continue.
Dissenters, represented by Texas anti-abortion campaigner Jonathan Mitchell, argue that the U.S. Select Committee on Preventive Services is made up of outside experts who are neither Senate-approved nor elected by the Senate. It claims it is seeking to completely rescind its preventive health obligations. – Agency officials confirmed that agency recommendations on what services should be covered by insurance must be “pending” and cannot be enforced.
Their lawsuit also alleges that the insurance requirement to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, used to prevent HIV infection violates the objectors’ religious rights. In their legal briefs, they equate hiding highly effective drugs with promoting homosexuality and promiscuity.
The Fifth Circuit held oral arguments in the case last week, and a ruling is expected in the coming months. Whichever side wins, an appeal to the Supreme Court is likely.
For now, though, the deal overrides any decision made by the U.S. Task Force on Preventive Services since 2010 about what insurers have to cover at no cost, according to the Texas District Court in March. It supersedes the national judgment of Court Judge Reid O’Connor.
