2024 will be a pivotal year for health care in America. Several legal battles are underway now that threaten to disrupt access to prescription drugs, rip away lifesaving preventive care, and raise health care costs for millions of seniors and families across the nation. Protect Our Care is following three key legal battles in the courts now:
Threats to Preventive Care – Braidwood v. Becerra
In March 2023, radical District Judge Reed O’Connor struck down a provision of the ACA that requires insurers to cover lifesaving preventive services without cost sharing — a protection relied on by 150 million Americans. The ruling puts millions at the mercy of insurance companies and employers, who could eliminate the benefits entirely or start charging for them, increasing patient costs and creating major obstacles to care.. Watch our event with the American Lung Association, the American Public Health Association, and legal expert Andrew Pincus.
What’s next? The Fifth Circuit of Appeals will hear oral arguments in this case at the beginning of March
Threats to Mifepristone and FDA Approval – Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA
A decision to ban mifepristone would threaten millions of women’s access to safe and legal abortions and open the door for the politically motivated destruction of the FDA’s entire drug approval process. The Supreme Court will hear this case this term. You can read our report on the case and watch our event with a former FDA official and legal and public health experts.
What’s next? The Supreme Court will schedule its upcoming term which includes this case.
Threats to Lower Drug Costs for Seniors – Inflation Reduction Act Challenges
Nine cases are working their way through the court now seeking to overturn the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program in the Inflation Reduction Act. This month, oral arguments will be held in AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP v. Becerra et al., which threatens to rip away billions of dollars in savings from seniors and taxpayers in order to protect drug company profits. Read our fact sheet on all of the cases.
What’s next? On January 31, oral arguments will be heard in AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP v. Becerra et al.
Many of these cases are backed by the same people who oppose abortion rights, women’s health, LGBTQI+ rights, and affordable health care. All of this is part of Republicans’ endless war on health care. When Republican lawmakers don’t get their way in the halls of Congress or the states, they, corporate interests, and their network of lawyers and dark money groups turn to their allies in the courts. Read more about the GOP war on health care here.