Judge orders Obamacare insurers in Louisiana to accept HIV funds

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – A U.S. district court judge in Louisiana has temporarily barred Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and two smaller insurers from rejecting payments from a federal program intended to help low-income HIV patients buy health insurance. The insurers named in the case are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Vantage Health Plan and Louisiana Health Cooperative. They are among a small handful of insurance companies in Louisiana that sell healthcare policies under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state’s largest insurer, said late last year that it would no longer accept federal Ryan White payments on behalf of individuals with human immunodeficiency virus, which causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.