WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), put out the following statement on the federal court ruling in Texas which would allow employers to refuse to cover PrEP medication to protect against HIV and strike down the Affordable Care Act’s coverage protections for preventive care like birth control, STI screenings, and more.
“For more than a decade, Republicans’ biggest health care priority has been to strip away the patient protections of the ACA-and this lawsuit being championed by a far-right Republican organization shows nothing has changed. This outrageous decision would allow employers to deny coverage for PrEP, a lifesaving drug to prevent HIV-which would disproportionately hurt LGBTQ+ patients who have too long been denied the care they need because of bigoted policies and beliefs. Not to mention that it threatens every patient’s ability to get the essential preventative care services that keep them healthy-including birth control.
“The American people do not think employers and partisan politics should decide what health care you can receive-not on HIV prevention and care, not on abortion, and not on birth control. Republicans may want to ignore that message, which families have sent time and again with their voices and their votes, but Democrats are not going to let them. We are going to stand with patients, whose voices are only getting louder and louder, and we are going to fight for their health care."
