Some residents in Texas are reportedly trying to combat the coverage its citizens receive for STD and HIV care.
Roe v. Wade, contraception, and now the health care coverage people need to care for STDs and HIV treatment? This week, citizens in the state took shots at former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), which requires insurance companies to cover preventative services, including screenings for STDs, and HIV prevention care, among other health-related assistance.
A group of Texans claim ACA’s preventative care mandate goes against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, claiming it forces people to pay for plans that include care for sexually-transmitted diseases. The group says that having health care coverage included for sexually-transmitted diseases, encourages “homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.”
“The government cannot possibly show that forcing private insurers to provide PrEP drugs, the HPV vaccine, and screenings and behavioral counseling for STDs and drug use free of charge is a policy of such overriding importance that it can trump religious-freedom objections,” reads the lawsuit.
On the opposite side, some say leaving out preventive care would be detrimental.
“Ending the requirement that preventive services be free to patients will have negative health and financial consequences for millions,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Politico reports.
