Supreme Court to review ACA preventive care coverage requirements

The U.S. Supreme Court this week scheduled arguments for April 21 in a case that could decide the legality of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that insurers cover certain preventive services (Source: “Supreme Court schedules arguments in case where Trump administration is defending ACA,” The Hill, Feb. 24). 
 
In a surprising move, the Trump administration said it will continue the Biden White House’s defense of that requirement.  
 
But some legal experts said the arguments being presented by the Justice Department indicate a desire to give Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. substantial control over an independent government task force. 

The Justice Department in a brief last week argued that an independent government panel — the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) — is legally allowed to make coverage recommendations because the HHS secretary has the ultimate say over both the recommendations and the individual members of the panel. 
 
The secretary can remove the members at will, and the threat of removal is “the ultimate tool for control over final decisions on recommendations,” the administration wrote. 
 
Additionally, the HHS secretary has the ultimate authority to decide whether USPSTF recommendations should become binding on health-insurance issuers, the administration argued. The secretary may directly review — and deny legal force to — any recommendations. He can also request that the Task Force reconsider or modify its recommendations. 
 
The ACA requires insurers to cover, without cost-sharing, more than 100 preventive health services recommended by the task force.