{"id":58794,"date":"2022-09-07T17:13:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T21:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pappp.net\/?guid=8d263f73b026229eff2399ae31901504"},"modified":"2022-09-07T17:13:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T21:13:40","slug":"government-cannot-mandate-hiv-drug-coverage-rules-texas-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/?p=58794","title":{"rendered":"Government cannot mandate HIV drug coverage, rules Texas judge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/public-health\/1016490\/government-cannot-mandate-hiv-drug-coverage-rules-texas-judge\">The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color : #fff7d5;\n\t\t\tborder-width : 1px; padding : 5px; border-style : dashed; border-color : #e7d796;margin-bottom : 1em; color : #9a8c59;\">Article note: \"private, religious corporations\" is a _really_ revolting phrase.<\/div><p>U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor has ruled that the Affordable Care Act's mandate for free coverage of HIV prevention drugs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/federal-judge-texas-overturns-mandates-cover-drugs-prevent-hiv-infecti-rcna46669\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">violates&nbsp;the religious freedom<\/a> of a Christian-owned company,&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-09-07\/judge-says-hiv-drug-coverage-violates-religious-freedom?leadSource=uverify%20wall&amp;sref=a2d7LMhq\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bloomberg<\/a>&nbsp;<\/em>reports.<\/p>\n<p>Braidwood Management Inc. had challenged the provision requiring it to cover Truvada and Descovy, a pair of widely-used&nbsp;pre-exposure prophylactic drugs more commonly known as PrEP. Thousands of Americans &mdash; especially gay and bisexual men &mdash; take PrEP daily as a preventative measure against HIV.<\/p>\n<p>In their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22276221-kelley-v-azar-complaint\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">initial complaint<\/a>, the&nbsp;plaintiffs argued that the ACA mandate&nbsp;\"forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.\" O'Connor ultimately sided with the plaintiffs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/federal-judge-texas-overturns-mandates-cover-drugs-prevent-hiv-infecti-rcna46669\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">claiming the<\/a>&nbsp;defendants did not show a \"compelling interest in forcing private, religious corporations to cover PrEP drugs with no cost-sharing and no religious exemptions.\"<\/p>\n<p>The suit was led by attorney Jonathan Mitchell, the former Republican solicitor general of Texas who is known for his efforts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-09-07\/judge-says-hiv-drug-coverage-violates-religious-freedom?leadSource=uverify%20wall&amp;sref=a2d7LMhq\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">restrict abortion access in the state<\/a>. Mitchell believes that the entire preventive services mandate under the ACA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-09-07\/judge-says-hiv-drug-coverage-violates-religious-freedom?leadSource=uverify%20wall&amp;sref=a2d7LMhq\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is invalid<\/a> because those who manage the list are too empowered to not have Senate confirmation,&nbsp;<em>Bloomberg&nbsp;<\/em>writes.<\/p>\n<p>At this time, it's unclear whether O'Connor's ruling will be nationally endorsed; still, it could have a major impact on access to preventative care and important free health services for Americans. \"It's a disappointing decision because it has broader implications for harm for folks that are just trying to work and live and access health care,\" attorney Shelley Skeen told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/federal-judge-texas-overturns-mandates-cover-drugs-prevent-hiv-infecti-rcna46669\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. District Judge Reed O&#8217;Connor has ruled that the Affordable Care Act&#8217;s mandate for free coverage&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/pappp.net\/?p=58794\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}