The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a key Affordable Care Act provision requiring health insurers to cover certain recommended preventive services cost-free. The decision delivers a victory to health advocates, because services including cancer screenings, statins, and HIV prevention drugs called PrEP will continue to be available at no cost to many Americans.
But the decision also ratifies a strong role for the Health and Human Services secretary in overseeing a key expert panel that has long evaluated preventive services, including removing members and modifying its rulings. That means Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have more latitude to reshape what’s covered… [end quote]
It’s impossible to say whom RFK Jr. will appoint to the expert panel.
Ironic that on the one hand they hand more power to a regulatory agency, while on the other they strip regulatory agencies from interpreting the will of Congressional legislation and allow the President to withhold funds if he feels like it.
Or exclude some providers from medicaid because some people do not like them. Although they provide great healthcare to the under priviliged. Alot of young women in College receive their healthcare through planned parenthood.
The insurance companies have probably run the numbers, and know that preventive screenings, and treating something early, is cheaper, for them, than the patient waiting until a condition is acute. But, the insurance companies probably also realize that, if a company decides to roll the dice, and offer coverage that excludes free checkups, people will only look at the lower premium, and sign up, then skip the checkups, because of the out of pocket cost. So the companies that do include free checkups lose business. So, better to have the government force everyone to cover screenings.
In general the more access to health care people have the more they use it. So preventative care does not lower costs. More testing is conducted and more treatment is prescribed earlier and for more conditions. It does however improve outcomes.
The issue is the ACA allows carve outs for religious organizations to have their own insurance. These organizations are interested in maximizing dollars, not healthcare outcomes. Hence their lawsuit.