HuffPost: This Supreme Court Decision Could Make It Harder For Millions To Access Preventive Health Care

This article from HuffPost discusses the SCOTUS oral arguments being held in Kennedy v. Braidwood, a significant challenge to the Affordable Care Act that could strip away insurance coverage for preventive services like cancer screenings, HIV prevention, and diabetes medication for millions of Americans.

The article discusses how abolishing free preventive services will widen health disparities among already marginalized communities, including those experiencing the highest rates of HIV diagnoses in Black and Latino communities, gay and bisexual men, trans women, and people living in the South and rural areas.

• “PrEP was explicitly named from the Braidwood group because [they believe] it promotes homosexuality and unmarried sex … but the goal was always to undermine the Affordable Care Act,” Mandisa Moore-O’Neal, the executive director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, told HuffPost. “Braidwood really drives home how certain groups — trans folks, queer folks, people vulnerable to HIV — are the lowest hanging fruit and are often used as a placeholder for something that’s going to impact a much larger group.”

The article also talks about what the elimination of coverage for other preventive services beyond PrEP.

• “What does that mean for someone at the end of year? What about for a queer couple who has been planning pregnancy and hopes to start insemination in July and was counting on being able to use their insurance to have certain early pregnancy screenings? What is the impact on Black women’s ability to get cancer screenings?” Moore-O’Neal asked, referring to the possibility that the court could rule in favor of Braidwood. “The impacts are dire.”

Read the full article.