TX Judge: Coverage of Anti-HIV Medicine Violates Religious Freedom

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a mandate requiring most health insurance companies to cover medicine that prevents HIV infection violates the religious freedom of certain businesses. The ruling partially resolves a lawsuit brought by a Christian for-profit corporation owned by Republican mega-donor Steven Hotze, who claimed that forcing his company to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs, more commonly known as PrEP, under the Affordable Care Act would make the company “facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior.”

The CDC recommends the use of PrEP to people at high risk of contracting HIV, including men who have sex with men, stating that PrEP “reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% … [and] the risk of getting HIV from injection drug use by at least 74%."