In Kennedy v. Braidwood Management (the Supreme Court’s resolution of Braidwood v. Becerra), the Court held 6-3 that members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are “inferior officers” whose appointment by the HHS Secretary is consistent with the Appointments Clause.
As a result, the ACA’s requirement that private health plans (and Medicaid expansion plans) cover Task Force–recommended preventive services without cost sharing survived the challenge, essentially upholding the current system linking health insurance coverage to the Task Force recommendations.
The plaintiffs (Braidwood) wanted to eliminate all of the Task Force recommendations developed since 2010 (when the ACA was signed).
Note: The Task Force recommendations that were in place when President Obama signed the ACA remain hard wired and can’t be eliminated by new Task Force recommendations.
A and B Recommendations | United States Preventive Services Taskforce
The post ACA implementation recommendations that Braidwood wanted to get rid of include:
- Colorectal cancer screenings for adults ages 45–49
- Depression screenings for adolescents
- HIV prevention medications, including PrEP
This outcome is an important short-term victory for preventive health, ensuring that millions of Americans continue to have access to evidence-based care that saves lives and reduces long-term health costs.
I say short-term because the Court also said Kennedy has the authority to remove USPSTF members at will. As he did with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Kennedy is likely to replace Task Force members with his friends in the alt-science community. That new task force could nix the recommendations made by the TF since 2010..
See the ruling: Kennedy v Braidwood
For now, these protections stand, and health plans still need to cover US Preventative Health Services Task Force category A & B recommendations – but Kennedy can fire the task force at will and replace them with whoever he sees fit (without senate confirmation) and could direct them to target and eliminate the recommendations that have been put in place since 2010 – gradually (or even quickly) eroding access to critical preventive services.
Read more from ASTHO’s Public Health Litigation Round-Up and AzPHA’s background post here.
New Threat to Public Health: Preventive Care on the Chopping Block – AZ Public Health Association
