BREAKING: COURT SIDES WITH TRUMP AND THE GOP AND RULES TO FULLY REPEAL THE ACA
Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions Gone
Medicaid Expansion Gone
Women Charged More Because They Are Women
Seniors Pay More for Prescription Drugs
Health Care Coverage for Children Up to 26 Gone
Millions Could Lose Health Care
“This decision is a disaster for American health care and it should be reversed immediately. Republicans at all levels own full responsibility for the harm this decision will cause, if it’s allowed to stand,” said Leslie Dach
Washington, D.C. – In response to conservative U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling in Texas, et. al. vs. United States, et. al., a case brought by Republican attorneys general and governors and the Trump Administration, Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care, issued the following statement:
“Today, Republicans got their wish: they have ripped health care away from millions of people and raised costs for millions more. This decision is a disaster for American health care and it should be reversed immediately by a higher court. But make no mistake: what this judge ruled is what Republicans asked for. Republicans at all levels own full responsibility for the harm this decision will cause if it’s allowed to stand.
“If this ruling is not overturned, Republicans will bring us back to a time when insurance companies could deny the millions of Americans living with pre-existing conditions — like cancer, diabetes, or asthma — health coverage altogether or jack up their premiums, making life-saving health care unaffordable for millions. It forces seniors to pay more for drugs and allows insurance companies to charge women and seniors more based on their age and gender. It eliminates Medicaid expansion for 15 million Americans.
“Donald Trump, every single Republican attorney general and governor on this case, and every Republican in Congress and in statehouses who refused to publicly oppose this lawsuit are responsible for what happens next. They own this, and deserve the wrath of the American people who just weeks ago voted to protect our care.”
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
Under this ruling:
- Seventeen million more people could lose their coverage in a single year, leading to a 50 percent increase in the uninsured rate
- Protections for 130 million people with pre-existing conditions would be removed
- Annual and lifetime limits would once again be legal
- Children would no longer be allowed to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26
- Medicaid expansion, currently covering 15 million people, would end
- Improvements to Medicare, including reduced costs for prescription drugs, would be eliminated
- Insurance discrimination against women and people over age 50 would once again be allowed
- Limits on out-of-pocket costs would be eliminated
- Small business tax credits would no longer exist
- Marketplace tax credits for up to 9 million people would end
Republicans at all levels own the consequences of this decision on the American people.
- The Republican attorneys general and governors who brought this case have been hellbent on restricting people’s access to health care. Many of those involved in this lawsuit have been involved in prior efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, block the Medicaid expansion and restrict women’s health.
- The Trump Administration took the shocking step of abandoning its legal and constitutional responsibilities to defend the law of the land, instead prioritizing its no-holds-barred war on American health care by siding with the Republican states in this case.
- Republicans in Congress voted for the tax scam that opened the door for this lawsuit in the first place.
- Republicans in Congress refused to join Democratic efforts in the Senate and House to intervene in this lawsuit to protect health care.
- Republican governors who want to distance themselves from this lawsuit could have directed their attorneys general to withdraw from this case, or urged them to drop it altogether, but they refused to do so.
The medical community has spoken loudly and clearly about the harms this ruling would cause people around the country.
- American Cancer Society-Cancer Action Network, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society: “Striking down these provisions would be catastrophic and have dire consequences for many patients with serious illnesses.”
- American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: “Invalidating the guaranteed-issue and community rating provisions — or the entire ACA — would have a devastating impact on doctors, patients, and the American health care system as a whole.”
- American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and Association of American Medical Colleges: “A judicial repeal would have severe consequences for America’s hospitals, which would be forced to shoulder the greater uncompensated-care burden that the ACA’s repeal would create.”
- AARP: Before ACA’s protections, discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions, age rating, and annual and lifetime caps made accessing health care out of reach for older adults.