Fort Worth judge sides with GOP plaintiffs in lawsuit challenging key provision of Obamacare [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)

A federal judge in Fort Worth has ruled that a mandate requiring health insurers to pay the full cost of preventive health care is unconstitutional. The ruling could threaten access to scores of health services, including cancer screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies.

Judge Reed O’Connor issued a ruling Thursday that struck down a key component of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The landmark 2010 health care law required insurance companies to cover the cost of preventive care in full, meaning that if you have health insurance, you couldn’t be charged for a screening for cervical cancer.

“A lot of these services are really widely used,” said Allison Hoffman, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “Manly people are going to feel the effects of this ruling.”

Hoffman said that because this year’s health plans are already in effect, most people with health insurance likely won’t see any changes until next year, after they’ve picked new plans either through their employer or the Affordable Care Act marketplace. And some insurance companies might still decide to cover the full cost of these services, because of their popularity among consumers.

The case was brought by multiple Tarrant County residents, including Fort Worth orthodontist John Kelley, as well as Dr. Steven Hotze and his company Braidwood Management Inc. The plaintiffs were opposed to the law’s preventive care mandate because it required insurance companies to cover the cost of care including birth control, testing for sexually transmitted infections, and antivirals like PrEP. The plaintiffs said they didn’t want to offer health insurance as employers, or buy it as individuals, because they were morally and religiously opposed. Kelley, a member of the Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, is “a Christian, and he is therefore unwilling to purchase health insurance that subsidizes abortifacient contraception or PrEP drugs that encourage homosexual behavior and intravenous drug use,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth.

Hotze is best known as a QAnon conspiracy theorist and was recently asked to leave a hearing at the Texas Capitol after he repeatedly referred to trans people as pedophiles.