Voters Reject Republican War on Health Care, Demand End to Sabotage

Democrats Given a Mandate to Reduce Costs, Increase Protections and Coverage

Washington, DC – In response to the breaking news that Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Leslie Dach, the founder and chair of Protect our Care, issued the following statement:

“Tonight, Americans rejected the war on health care that has defined the Republican party for almost a decade. Health care propelled Democrats to victory and control of the House. The American people delivered a clear and powerful message. Voters roundly rejected the Trump-GOP agenda of repeal and sabotage. Democrats have a clear mandate to protect our care, starting with lower prescription drug prices and continued protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, added:  

“The race for the House was a referendum on the Republican war on health care. You know it, I know it, and the Republican incumbents who shamefully tried to cover up their real record on health care and lost their seats know it. Even bald-face lies couldn’t save the GOP from their indefensible position on health care, which is that we all pay more for coverage — and women, people with preexisting conditions, and older people lose protections they need — while wealthy insurance and drug companies get record tax breaks.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

HEALTH CARE HAS BEEN THE DRIVING ISSUE OF THE 2018 ELECTION

• A new Wesleyan Media Project analysis of advertising spending found that Democrats overwhelmingly ran on health care, with health care featured in 57 percent of Democratic advertising;
• Health care is a top Google search in more than three-quarters of congressional districts;
• Polling consistently has confirmed that health care is the top issue to voters and that Democrats have an advantage on the issue;
• Polling also confirms that voters reject the Republican health care agenda; and
• Republican incumbents have been firmly on the defensive on health care, resorting to outright, pants-on-fire lies about their record.

ELECTION-NIGHT NETWORK EXIT POLLS FOUND HEALTH CARE TO BE THE TOP ISSUE TO VOTERS

NBC News: Health Care Replaces Economy As Most Important Issue For Voters. “Early results from the NBC News Exit Poll indicate that Democrats’ strategic decision to campaign on the issue of health care resonated with voters. When asked which of four issues was the most important facing the country, a 41 percent plurality said health care. [NBC News, 11/6/2018]

CBS: “Health care was mentioned by almost twice as many voters as the next most common issue, immigration.” [CBS News, 11/6/18]

NBC News: By Two-to-one Margin, Health Care The Top Issue For Independent Voters. [Sahil Kapur Twitter, 11/6/18]

AP: Health Care Tops Voters’ Concerns. “Health care was at the forefront of many voters’ minds: 27 percent named it as the most important issue facing the country in this year’s midterm elections. …Those who voted for a Democratic House candidate were more likely to say health care was their top issue, while those who voted for a Republican were more likely to name immigration.” [Associated Press, 11/6/18]

POLLING HAS CONSISTENTLY FOUND OPPOSITION TO REPUBLICAN WAR ON HEALTH CARE

When polled, voters reject main components of the GOP health care agenda and conversely, support policies that ensure greater access to coverage.

Health Care Repeal:

July 2018 – Public Policy Polling Poll Shows Voters Oppose Repeal Of The Affordable Care Act And The Lawsuit That Would Overturn It. By an overwhelming 25 points (59/34), people want Congress to “keep what works and fix what doesn’t” in the ACA, not repeal it. That margin grows to 32 points (62/30) with independents.  64% of voters oppose the Trump administration joining the lawsuit (Texas V. U.S.) which would strike down ACA’s protections of health care for people with pre-existing conditions. Only 19% of voters support joining the lawsuit.

Gutting Protections for Pre-existing Conditions:

August 2018 – Urban Institute Poll Finds Vast Majority Of Public Does Not Support Allowing Insurance Companies To Exclude People With Pre-existing Conditions. The poll found that 81.5 percent of those surveyed did not support letting insurance companies exclude people with pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes or cancer, from coverage.

July 2018 – Kaiser Health Tracking Poll Finds Candidate’s Position On Pre-existing Conditions Is Single Most Important Health Care Campaign Issue For Voters. “The July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds a candidate’s position on continuing protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is the top health care campaign issue for voters, among a list of issues provided. This issue cuts across voter demographics with most Democratic voters (74 percent), independent voters (64 percent), and voters living in battleground areas (61 percent), as well as half of Republican voters (49 percent) saying a candidate’s position on continued protections for pre-existing health conditions is either the single most important factor or a very important factor in their 2018 vote.”

Junk Plans:

October 2018 – POLITICO/Harvard Poll Finds Junk Plans To Be Opposed By Majority Of Voters, Not Even Backed By Majority Of Republicans. According to the poll, 62 percent of voters oppose short-term plans, including 39 percent of Republicans. Plus, they are not even supported by a majority of Republicans.

August 2018 – Urban Institute Poll Finds Junk Plans To Be Opposed By Vast Majority Of Americans. The survey found that 67.3 percent of those polled did not support shifting healthy people to less comprehensive plans with lower premiums while leaving sick people in more comprehensive plans with higher premiums.

Cutting Medicaid:

March 2018 – Kaiser Health Tracking Poll Finds Majority Of Americans View Medicaid Favorably And Say The Program Is Working Well. “Medicaid continues to be seen favorably by a majority of the public (74 percent) and about half (52 percent) believe the Medicaid program is working well for most low-income people covered by the program.”

March 2018 – Kaiser Health Tracking Poll Confirms That Lifetime Limits On Medicaid Coverage Are Extremely Unpopular. Asked whether Medicaid should be available without a time limit, two-thirds said that Medicaid should be available without a time limit, compared to only 33 percent who said that Medicaid should only be available for a limited amount of time.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Health care is the defining issue of this election. Period.

During the weeks leading up to the election, Democrats have been laser-focused on protecting health care for millions of Americans. Have a look for yourself:

For more information, read Protect Our Care’s report, Defined By Health Care: Election 2018, which synthesizes all the evidence that health care is the issue in 2018. Among the findings: Health Care is a top Google search in 75 percent of Congressional Districts ; national and district-specific polling of voters confirms health care is the top issue heading into November, and public opinion is decidedly against the Republican repeal-and-sabotage agenda; 50 percent of Democratic ad spending is on health care (according to an October analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project), and up and down the ballot, Republicans are breathlessly working to reinvent their records on health care with outright lies.

Over the past six weeks, Protect Our Care took the health care fight to communities as its bus, Care Force One, traveled 12,000 miles, making 49 stops in 24 states. 

“No matter where we went, we heard the same thing,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “Americans all over are sick and tired of the Republican-led war on health care. And you know what else? They’re fired up about their chance to fight back at the polls.”

Watch the video:

Shot: Today, five days away from Election Day and a day after Wisconsin received permission from the Trump Administration to restrict access to Medicaid, which is a lifeline for millions with pre-existing conditions, Scott Walker — who for eight years defined himself as a steadfast opponent of the Affordable Care Act — said, “No matter what happens in the courts or in the Congress, in Wisconsin, we’ll codify that, the exact same language that’s in the Affordable Care Act, we’ll make sure that everyone living with pre-existing conditions is covered here in the state.”

Chaser:

Scott Walker authorized the very same lawsuit that would eliminate the protections in the Affordable Care Act preventing discrimination based on pre-existing conditions if it succeeds. At risk:

• 2,435,700 Wisconsinites Living With A Pre-Existing Condition. About one in two Wisconsinites, 51 percent, lives with a pre-existing condition. [CAP, 4/5/17]
• 1,187,000 Wisconsin Women And Girls With A Pre-Existing Condition. Approximately 1,187,000 women and girls in Wisconsin live with a pre-existing condition. [CAP & National Partnership For Women and Families, June 2018]
• 308,100 Wisconsin Children Living With A Pre-Existing Condition. Roughly 308,000 Wisconsinites below age 18 live with a pre-existing condition. [CAP, 4/5/17]
• 616,900 Older Wisconsinites Living With A Pre-Existing Condition. 616,900 Wisconsin adults between the ages of 55 and 64 live with at least one pre-existing condition, meaning attacks on these protections significantly threaten Wisconsinites approaching Medicare age. [CAP, 4/5/17]

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Senate said just sixteen days ago that he doesn’t have the votes to pass a bill that would require insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions if Walker’s lawsuit is successful.

A new poll out yesterday shows 82 percent of Wisconsinites say the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to protect pre-existing conditions is very important to them, laying Scott Walker’s 11th-hour, craven political posturing bare.

Bill Cassidy Tries Yet Again To Lie About Pre-existing Condition Protections

After Sen. Cassidy went on a notorious lying streak last fall trying to convince Americans that his health plan protected people with pre-existing conditions (it did not), he is back at it again.

SHOT: Bill Cassidy Says GOP Wants to Protect Pre-Existing Conditions

CHASER: Graham-Cassidy: The Most Dishonest Senate Bill Of All-Time?

1. Politico: Kimmel, not Cassidy, is right on health care, analysts say
2. Huffington Post: Bill Cassidy Says Jimmy Kimmel ‘Doesn’t Understand’ Health Care. Experts Say He Does.
3. Washington Post: Three Pinocchios for Sen. Cassidy’s rebuttal to Jimmy Kimmel: ‘More people will have coverage’
4. PolitiFact: Bill Cassidy offers misleading defense in face-off with Jimmy Kimmel
5. ABC News: Fact check: Sen. Bill Cassidy on his health care bill assertions
6. Washington Post: Cassidy-Graham and fuzzy math
7. Bloomberg: Republicans Peddle Nonsense to Sell Health-Care Plan
8. Vox: Cassidy is selling his health plan with misleading numbers
9. Huffington Post: The Sponsors Of Obamacare Repeal Are Trying To Fool America — And Fellow Republicans
10. Bloomberg: GOP Health Bill Would End Guarantee That Sick People Won’t Pay More
11. Vox: Graham-Cassidy’s cuts are confusing. Let’s make them simple.
12. Washington Post’s Health 202: Moderates would have to swallow deep Medicaid cuts for GOP health-care push to succeed
13. Forbes: 6 Big Lies About Graham-Cassidy And Healthcare Reform And 1 Truth

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: Republicans Are STILL Trying To End Protections For People WIth Pre-existing Conditions

Republicans Are Arguing In Court That Protections For People With Pre-Existing Conditions Should Be Overturned. The Trump Administration and twenty conservative states are arguing in court that pre-existing conditions be overturned. A hearing is scheduled in a federal district court on September 5.

Senate Republicans Are Trying To Pass A Bill That Would Allow Insurance Companies To Exclude Coverage For Pre-existing Conditions. The bill, sponsored by ten Senate Republicans, would allow insurance companies to refuse to cover services related to a pre-existing condition. For instance, an insurance company could sell someone with cancer health care, but refuse to cover any services related to cancer treatment. Larry Levitt, Vice President of the Kaiser Family Foundation warns that this policy change would make guaranteed access to insurance “something of a mirage.”

Not A Single Republican In Congress Has Signed On To Proposed Resolutions That Would Give Congress The Authority To Defend Protections For People With Pre-Existing Conditions. Democrats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have introduced a resolution that would enable each house’s respective Office of Legal Counsel to intervene to defend protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Not a single Republican has signed on.

Since 2010, House Republicans Have Voted To Repeal Or Substantially Alter The Affordable Care Act Dozens Of Times.  House Republicans have voted dozens of times to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Until recently, Republicans bragged about this record. As the Washington Post notes, until this year Rep. Dave Joye’s website read that he had voted more than thirty times to repeal, defund, or delay the ACA.

Last Summer Alone, Senate Republicans Voted On Three Bills That Would Have Meant Meant People With Pre-existing Conditions Pay More. Last Summer, the Senate voted to on three bills that would have weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions — the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the Obamacare Repeal and Reconciliation Act, and the Health Care Freedom Act, also known as “skinny repeal.” Republicans largely supported each of these efforts.

Second Open Enrollment Period Under GOP Sabotage

“People who need insurance should sign up for coverage starting November 1 and then show up to the polls on November 6,” says Leslie Dach

Washington, DC – Today begins the start of the sixth Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment period and the second that has been subjected to numerous acts of sabotage by President Trump and the GOP. In response to the start of this Open Enrollment period, which runs from November 1 through December 15, Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care, issued the following statement:

“The Affordable Care Act helps millions of Americans find quality health coverage, protects people with pre-existing conditions, and guarantees that insurance covers us when we get sick. But instead of supporting the law, the Trump Administration and this Republican Congress have done everything they can to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and undermine open enrollment. Republican sabotage has increased insurance premiums, ended almost all outreach and advertising in support of enrollment, and could eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions.

“The Republican war on health care is an outrage, and Americans will show their outrage on Election Day. People who need insurance should sign up for coverage starting November 1 and then show up to the polls on November 6 and send pro-repeal-and-sabotage Republicans packing.”