The American Medical Association and seven other physician groups filed an amicus brief supporting the ACA's preventive care requirements in a case in Texas court challenging the law.
The brief was filed Nov. 30 in the case Braidwood Management v. Becerra. Texas company Braidwood Management filed a lawsuit in 2021, saying covering preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for HIV prevention violated the company's religious freedoms.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled in favor of the company in September, declaring the rule requiring health plans to cover PrEP unconstitutional.
Mr. O'Connor ruled that the provision to cover preventive care as a whole is unconstitutional, but he did not strike it down or issue an injunction.
In the brief, the AMA and other associations argue the district court should not issue any remedy that would "imperil access to no-cost preventive care nationwide."
"The research is clear: no-cost preventive care saves lives, saves money, improves health outcomes, and enables healthier lifestyles … By expanding access to insurance coverage, and by requiring insurance plans to cover preventive health services without cost-sharing, such as copays and deductibles, the ACA greatly expanded the availability of these services," the organizations said in the brief.
In addition to the AMA, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Women's Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the National Medical Association and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine signed the brief.
Read the full brief here.