A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday against the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers cover the cost of common HIV/AIDS drugs.
“Defendants have not shown a compelling interest in forcing private, faith-based corporations to cover PrEP medication without cost-sharing and without religious exemptions,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in his ruling.
Public health advocates called the ruling “shocking,” arguing that by striking down Obamacare, the courts took away vital tools to make the disease far less deadly than it was at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“This decision is shocking on every level,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of the nonprofit AVAC, told NBC News. “It flies in the face of evidence, logic, public health and human rights, and is holding back tremendous progress in the fight to end the HIV epidemic.”
This is breaking news and will be updated with new information.