Overview of HHS freedom of conscience/religion controversy (2011-2013)
Appendix "A"
Public Health Service Act (Annotated)
Introduction:
This part of the United States Code (U.S.C) is also known as the
Public Health Service Act. In March, 2010 the
Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act amended the law in the course
of wide-ranging health care reforms.
The amended law (reproduced here in part) requires all group health care plans (the kind of plan usually offered by businesses or oganizations) to offer coverage and fully pay for "preventive services."
Health insurance issuers (like insurance companies) must also make
available group and individual plans that fully pay for "preventive
services."
Preventive services were not fully defined in the law, but the amendment included four categories of preventive services that had to be provided as a minimum.
What follows is the part of the law that is the basis for the
regulation ultimately enacted to compel employers to pay for insurance coverage for morally contested services, notwithstanding objections for reasons of conscience or religion. Key terms are highlighted, links have been added for the convenience
of readers, and annotations are provided in text boxes to the right.
United States Code | Title 42 - The Public Health and Welfare | Chapter 6A-Public Health Services (Public Health Service Act)
Subchapter XXV-Requirements Relating to Health
Insurance Coverage
Part A-Individual and Group Market Reforms
Subpart ii-Improving coverage
§300gg-13. Coverage of preventive health services
(a) In general
A group health plan and a health insurance issuer
offering group or individual health insurance coverage
shall, at a
minimum provide coverage for and shall not impose any cost sharing
requirements for-
(1) evidence-based items or services that have in
effect a rating of "A" or "B" in the
current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services
Task Force;
(2) immunizations that have in effect a
recommendation from the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with respect to the
individual involved; and
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(3) with respect to infants, children, and
adolescents, evidence-informed preventive care and screenings provided
for in the comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources
and Services Administration.
(4) with respect to women, such additional
preventive care and screenings not described in paragraph (1) as
provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health
Resources and Services Administration for purposes of this paragraph.
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(3) and (4) authorize the Health Resources
and Services Administration (an agency of the
Department of Health and Human Services) to develop "comprehensive
guidelines" to implement the law. The Health Resources and Services
Administration later enacted Required Health
Plan Coverage Guidelines. The period in clause (4) should probably have been a semi-colon.
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(5) for the purposes of this chapter, and for the
purposes of any other provision of law, the current recommendations of
the United States Preventive Service Task Force regarding breast cancer
screening, mammography, and prevention shall be considered the most
current other than those issued in or around November 2009.
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to
prohibit a plan or issuer from providing coverage for services in
addition to those recommended by United States Preventive Services Task
Force or to deny coverage for services that are not recommended by such
Task Force. . .