Insurers are required to cover preventive health care services such as cancer and diabetes screenings, mental health counseling and medication to prevent HIV, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, upholding a key provision of the Affordable Care Act.
But in doing so, the court gave Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unprecedented power over the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel that recommends which preventive services health plans must cover under the ACA.
“The Executive Branch under both President Trump and President Biden has argued that the Preventive Services Task Force members are inferior officers and therefore may be appointed by the Secretary of HHS. We agree,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the court’s opinion.