Chicago – April 21, 2025
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is defending the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court – a notable contrast to his first term, when his administration sought to repeal the law in Congress and then refused to defend it in a major challenge brought by GOP-led states.
But a win for the federal government in the current case, concerning the law’s mandates that certain preventive services are covered cost-free, could boost the power that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has in shaping those requirements.
It comes as Kennedy shakes up the health agency with mass layoffs and plans to consolidate huge swathes of its authorities in a new, $20 billion “Administration for a Healthy America.” Kennedy has questioned a litany of public health recommendations, and a victory in this case could put him in more direct control of at least one expert panel focused on those policies.
On Monday, the justices will be considering the legality of certain no cost-sharing coverage mandates that were created by a government entity known as the US Preventive Services Task Force, which issues recommendations that are supposed to be shielded from political influence.
At stake is the ability of millions of Americans to access cost-free preventive services that include cancer screenings, statins that help prevent cardiovascular disease, PrEP drugs that help prevent HIV infections, and counseling referrals for pregnant and postpartum women at increased risk of depression.
