Americans recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act — former President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform legislation known as "Obamacare" — being signed into law. And two Supreme Court justices appear poised to protect it in a forthcoming decision.
Vox's Ian Millhiser reported that the case Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc. could yield a surprising result in that two conservative members of the High Court may join the three liberal justices in upholding a key portion of the Affordable Care Act according to oral arguments held Monday. According to Millhiser, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — who Trump appointed in 2020 and 2018, respectively — have indicated a willingness to back a requirement that health insurance companies cover some preventative care procedures.
The Kennedy v. Braidwood case made its to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sued over a provision of the ACA that requires the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (or PSTF, which is under HHS' umbrella) to mandate that certain treatments be covered by all insurance plans.
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These treatments include cancer screenings, drugs that prevent transmission of HIV and eye ointments that prevent infections that can cause blindness in infants. Should the HHS prevail in the case, it would strip the PSTF of the ability to require insurance companies to pay for these treatments as the ACA currently allows.
Millhiser opined that during Monday's oral arguments, Justices Barrett and Kavanaugh asked questions of the HHS' attorney that led him to believe they could side with liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. He noted that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito appeared to be on the side of President Donald Trump's HHS, while Chief Justice John Roberts was "silent for most of the argument.
"All three of the Court’s Democrats appeared all but certain to uphold the PSTF, so that means there may be at least five votes to preserve health insurers’ obligations under Obamacare," Millhiser wrote.
Even though the Supreme Court is the final appeals court in the U.S., Millhiser observed that it was possible the Court may end up kicking the case back down to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to iron out details about how the HHS secretary's powers to hire and fire pertain to the PSTF. Millhiser characterized that as "bad news" for the PSTF, given the 5th Circuit's reputation as one of the most conservative courts in the country.
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Click here to read Millhiser's full article.
