The Supreme Court stated that it would take up a challenge to a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires insurance companies to cover some kinds of preventive care at no cost, Adam Liptak reported for The New York Times on January 10. “The new challenge is directed at a task force that decides which treatments are covered.”

Liptak explained that some Texas residents and two small Christian-affiliated businesses that provide health insurance to employees sued to contest how the task force had been appointed, saying it violated the Constitution. “The plaintiffs objected to the task force’s decision to cover medication preventing H.I.V. infection in some at-risk people.”

The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas and The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans agreed that the task force had too much independence.

Andrew Twinamatsiko, Zachary Baron, and Sheela Ranganathan explained the background of the Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Becerra case in a December 23 article for Health Affairs. “The government is asking the Supreme Court to decide whether the structure of the US Preventive Services Task Force (the “Task Force”)—a group of nationally recognized experts who recommend services that virtually all private insurers must cover for free—is constitutional.” 

Healthcare Innovation’s Mark Hagland reported on January 2 that the legal dispute hinges on whether the Task Force members are “principal officers” or “inferior officers.” “The distinction matters,” Hagland explained, “because the plaintiffs’ legal argument is based on their contention that the Task Force members are “principal officers” whose appointments should have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.”

United States of Care (USofCare) announced in a news brief on January 15 that it urges the Supreme Court to halt the efforts to eliminate free access to preventive care services. “By making people pay for care that was once free, eliminating these protections would inject uncertainty into our healthcare system and amplify the anxiety we know people already have about the cost of healthcare,” CEO and Co-Founder of USofCare, Natalie Davis, said in a statement.