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ashoup
In News

A Vote for Brett Kavanaugh is a Vote Against Health Care for Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions, Women & Americans Over 50

Since day one, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have waged a war on America’s healthcare. They tried and failed to repeal health care through legislation and are now trying to take it away in the courts. President Trump has gone to court to make protections millions of people with a pre existing conditions, people over 50 and women rely on illegal, and overturning the law was a litmus test for picking a nominee. Brett Kavanaugh is on record criticizing previous Supreme Court decisions that protected healthcare and has said the President doesn’t have to enforce current laws. It is likely that one or more partisan legal challenges to affordable health care will make it to the Supreme Court and this seat could tip the balance.

At Risk: Protections For 130 Million Americans With A Pre-Existing Condition

Roughly half of non-elderly American adults and one in 4 children, or up to 130 million people, have at least one pre-existing condition. That includes everyone with cancer, diabetes,asthma, and any form of mental health issue or drug abuse problem.  Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies were able to discriminate against them, by charging them more, dropping coverage once people got sick, or denying coverage altogether. The ACA banned all of those practices, providing health security to millions.

Ending protections for people with pre-existing conditions is the official policy of the Trump Administration. The Trump Administration’s Department of Justice has taken the extraordinary step of joining the latest partisan lawsuit that seeks to strike down the ACA and has argued the Courts put Americans at the mercy of insurance companies by overturning provisions in the law that now prevent insurance companies from denying coverage completely or charging people more because of a pre-existing condition. Experts estimate that even if a cancer patient could get covered, they would have to pay as much as $140,000 a year more in premiums.

At Risk: Protections for Women and People Over 50

But that’s not all! If successful, the lawsuit joined by the Justice Department would also get rid of protections that prevent insurance companies from charging women and adults over 50 more for their health care coverage. Put another way, if these protections are taken away, we would go back to a time when older Americans could be charged an “age tax” of up to five times more for the same coverage as someone younger and women could be charged up to 50 percent more, just because they are women. Studies by AARP say premiums for someone over 50 could go up by more than $4,000 a year.

At Risk: Women’s Health Care

  • Access to safe and legal abortion: By age 45, one in four women in the U.S. has had an abortion, for reasons that are deeply personal. But Brett Kavanaugh has used his power as a judge to prevent a pregnant young woman from accessing a safe and legal abortion she wanted. His track record, coupled with Trump’s campaign promises to only appoint justices who will overturn Roe vs. Wade, put women’s right to safe and legal abortion in jeopardy.
  • Birth control coverage: Thanks to the ACA, 62.4 million women now have access to birth control with no out-of-pocket costs. Women saved $1.4 billion on birth control pills alone in 2013. Three courts of appeals are considering the Trump Administration’s roll back of the birth control benefit under the ACA, allowing any employer to deny coverage.
  • Access to Planned Parenthood: One in five women have turned to Planned Parenthood for care at some point in their lives for a wide range of health and education services, but numerous state and federal efforts are underway to block low-income women from continuing to rely on this provider of choice for so many. Currently, three cases working their way through the courts challenge state actions to prevent Planned Parenthood patients’ access to birth control and other preventive care.
  • Coverage for nursing moms:  Following the ACA, which helped give new moms access to lactation consultants, breast pumps, and time and space at work to pump their milk until as late as a year after birth, the rate of women breastfeeding 12 months after giving birth rose from 27 percent to 34 percent, the largest increase in any recent three-year period. Two court cases challenging the breast-feeding services available to moms at no cost under the ACA, however, could jeopardize these gains for maternal and infant health.

At Risk: Medicaid Coverage and Eligibility

Medicaid is a lifeline for one in five people, providing critical preventive care, substance use treatment, acute care, and more to more than 70 million people. Medicaid is the primary provider for long-term care in the country, covering 6 in 10 nursing home residents, is also the primary provider to help people with disabilities stay in their homes, and pays for roughly half of the births in this country.

But the Trump Administration has launched a new assault on Medicaid enrollees by pushing states to adopt rigid rules (so-called “work requirements”) that create burdensome paperwork requirements designed to kick people off coverage. These new rules are working their way through the courts and could very well make their way to the high court before long.

The bottom line: Brett Kavanaugh was hand-picked to be a rubber stamp on Trump’s anti health care agenda. That’s why health care is on the line in if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.

ashoup
In News

Four Ways Kavanaugh Could Impact People With Coverage Through Medicaid

Republicans have been on a relentless war on health care, wielding legislation, executive action and litigation as weapons in their war on the protections that prevent insurance companies from charging women, people over age 50 and people with pre-existing conditions more for health care — and on Medicaid.

Here’s how confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court could wreak havoc on Medicaid:

1. Kavanaugh Could Allow States To Restrict Enrollment Through Onerous Work Requirements designed to make it harder for people to get the coverage they need. As a lawsuit against Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin’s work requirements makes its way through the courts, President Trump’s next Supreme Court justice could rule on them, shifting Medicaid’s role away from its core purpose of providing health care to the most vulnerable Americans.

  • Abbe Gluck, Yale Professor Of Health Law, Could See Kavanaugh Opening The Door To More Restrictions On Medicaid: “We don’t know very much about how Judge Kavanaugh will approach work requirements…It’s unclear to me how deferential he would be to the CMS. I could see him opening the door to more restrictions on Medicaid.”

2. Kavanaugh Could Prevent Medicaid From Covering Health Care At Planned Parenthood. Several states have taken to excluding Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs. In those states, Planned Parenthood is fighting back. If Kavanaugh, who just last year forced a young woman to continue a pregnancy despite her will, is confirmed, he could prevent Medicaid from covering life-saving preventive health services, such as cancer screenings, at Planned Parenthood.

3. He Could Deny Individuals And Providers The Right To Sue When A State’s Medicaid Program Isn’t Complying With The Law, Which Experts Suggest Will Enable States To Decimate Their Medicaid Programs.  As Axios has reported, conservatives on the Supreme Court including Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia have argued that because Medicaid is a contract between states and the federal government, individuals and providers do not have the right to sue for entitlements the statute requires.

  • Cases Involving Providers’ and Patients’ Right To Court Are Working Their Way Up To The Supreme Court, including one case in which an appeals court ruled that Planned Parenthood does not have the right to sue Arkansas over its Medicaid program.
  • Timothy Jost, Law Professor At Washington And Lee, Thinks Kavanaugh Could Make A Huge Difference In Cases Involving The Rights Of Poor People To Sue To Enforce The Medicaid Statute: “Where I do see Kavanaugh making a huge difference is in cases involving the rights of poor people to sue to enforce the Medicaid statute.”
  • If The Right To Sue Goes Away, George Washington University Law Professor Sara Rosenbaum Warns States May Start Hacking Away At Medicaid. She says, “it’s certainly possible that a state would start hacking away at its program. There would be no deterrence at all.”

4. He Could End Medicaid Expansion. The Affordable Care Act enabled states to expand access to Medicaid for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. Should the Affordable Care Act come before the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh, who has previously criticized Justice John Roberts for voting to uphold the ACA,  could vote to end the law and its Medicaid expansion.

  • Trump’s Justice Department Has Already Backed A Texas Lawsuit Challenging The Legality Of The Affordable Care Act, And Prominent Republican Leaders Have Assured That The ACA Will Continue To Be Litigated. Senator Orrin Hatch said, “The Affordable Care Act is one of the broad, inclusive bills that you’ll ever see. And anybody who thinks it’s not going to be litigated sometime in the future is nuts.”

Why this matters: Medicaid is how one in five Americans have health insurance. If confirmed, Brett Kavanaugh could be a key player in sabotaging the program and threatening coverage for children, older adults, people with disabilities, people struggling with addiction, in states across the country.

ashoup
In News

Protect Our Care Highlights Maine and Alaska Pre-Existing Condition Stories in Press Conference to Stop Brett Kavanaugh

Washington, D.C. – This morning, Protect Our Care and Little Lobbyists joined Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen at press conference to lay out the threat against Americans with pre-existing conditions if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is appointed to the Supreme Court.

“A year ago this month, with every Democrat and Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and John McCain, we defeated the number one legislative priority of Republicans and President Trump dating back seven years: repealing protections from people with pre-existing conditions and the whole Affordable Care Act,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “For the health of the American people, we need the pro-health care majority in the Senate to come together again and keep Brett Kavanagh off the Supreme Court.”

Woodhouse highlighted at the press conference stories from Maine and Alaska, home to key Republican Senators in the nomination battle Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME):

  • Diane Decker of Anchorage, Alaska was diagnosed with leukemia in her late twenties, going through a bone marrow transplant and beating cancer. Despite this, years later when she wanted to start her own business, she was unable to find insurance. After the ACA, she was able to find coverage.
  • Alyce Ornella of Bangor, Maine gave birth to a son born with life-threatening birth defects and and in need of surgery to stay alive, as well as a team of specialists to help him as he grew older. The ACA ensured that Sam could get coverage without his family going into bankruptcy, and today he is a happy and healthy child.

Read more about why a vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a vote against these families — and all of the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

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ashoup
In News

Orrin Hatch Admits GOP Coming for Pre-Existing Conditions and Medicaid

 

Today, Sen. Orrin Hatch said this:

In other words, Sen. Hatch knows that the Affordable Care Act will – yet again – be on trial in the nation’s court system. In fact, there are two ways this is currently happening:

  1. In Texas v. United States, an ongoing lawsuit, the Trump Administration has joined with Republican attorneys general to argue that protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions should be struck down.
  2. Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court represents a drastic attack on Medicaid. Should Kavanaugh be confirmed, he will have the chance to dramatically reshape Medicaid, transforming it into a much more restrictive program:
    • Kavanaugh could allow states to impose onerous work requirements designed to make it harder for people to get the coverage they need;
    • Kavanaugh could deny individuals and providers the right to sue when a state’s medicaid program isn’t complying with the law;
    • Kavanaugh could exclude prevent medicaid from covering health care at planned parenthood, and
    • Kavanaugh could end Medicaid expansion.

Put together, what does this all mean?

A vote to appoint Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is a vote against the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions and the nearly 75 million Americans covered by Medicaid, and anyone who thinks otherwise need only look to Sen. Hatch.

ashoup
In News

Advocates Mount Defense of Health Care for Millions

Last night, President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court justice. To be clear, Trump had two litmus tests in selecting Brett Kavanaugh for the Court:

1) overturning Roe v. Wade, and

2) overturning Americans’ health care by gutting protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

Across the country, health care advocates geared up in opposition, urging their senators to reject Judge Kavanaugh, an activist judge who was hand-picked to rubber-stamp President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ war on health care.

Here are some highlights, with more activity on the ground happening today.

In Alaska, Protect Our Care was joined by health care advocates, Alaska Native leaders, and former Alaska Superior Court Judge John Reese to urge Sen. Lisa Murkowski to do what is best for Alaska and reject a justice who won’t protect Alaskans’ care.

In Maine, Protect Our Care was joined by the Maine Women’s Lobby and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in calling on Sen. Susan Collins to protect pre-existing condition protections and women’s access to health care.

In Arizona, Jeff Jeans, a cancer survivor joined  state Rep. Athena Salman, and representatives from Planned Parenthood and ACLU Arizona urged Senator Flake to stand up for Arizonans’ care.

In Nevada, Protect Our Care and Laura Packard, a health care advocate living with cancer, Cyndy Hernandez of NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada, and Sam Shaw of SEIU Nevada Local 1107 urged Sen. Dean Heller to stand up and protect Nevadans’ health care.

In Ohio, Protect Our Care Ohio joined with Innovation Ohio, the Physicians Action Network, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio highlighted the current and long-term threats to health care under a conservative Supreme Court.

In Tennessee, Protect Our Care was joined by a coalition of concerned citizens including Jen Yamin, the mother of a son with pre-existing conditions, Kristen Grimm, the mother of child with special needs, and Anna Carella, Co-Chair of Healthy and Free Tennessee, outside Sen. Bob Corker’s Nashville office.

In West Virginia, Protect Our Care advocates went on the record to make it clear that they want their senators to stand up health care.

ashoup
In News, Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on the Nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court by President Trump

Washington, D.C. – Following the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court by President Trump, Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, released the following statement:

“Make no mistake, President Trump had at least two litmus tests for Judge Kavanaugh to become his nominee for the Supreme Court: overturn Roe v. Wade and overturn America’s health care, by gutting protections for those with pre-existing conditions. Such a radical shift on these issues would be disastrous for women’s health and would put the health care of 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions at risk. This extreme judicial agenda, of ripping health care away from millions of people and returning to an era when women and doctors are criminals, is opposed by the vast majority of the American people. This nomination must be stopped and, given the previous Republican votes against repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and support for the precedent of Roe v Wade, it can be.”

ashoup
In News

White House Picks PhRMA Lobbyist to Guide Supreme Court Pick

Washington, D.C. – Following the White House’s announcement that former senator and current Big Pharma lobbyist Jon Kyl would be shepherding President Trump’s Supreme Court pick through the Senate, Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, released the following statement:

“We already know that the biggest problem for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick would be their support for Trump’s position in favor of a lawsuit striking down health care protections, like those for people with pre-existing conditions. By making a Big Pharma lobbyist who has repeatedly called for repeal of the Affordable Care Act the representative of his nominee, President Trump is once again making clear where his priorities lie: with insurance and drug companies, not the 130 million Americans with a pre-existing condition.”

ashoup
In News

Advocates Gear Up to Defend Health Care for Millions

Protect Our Care Coalition to Host Events Across the Country As Supreme Court Pick Looms

Enough Is Enough Poster

  • As President Trump prepares to make his Supreme Court announcement Monday, Americans from coast to coast are gearing up to make clear to their Senators that they must not vote against health care by voting for an extreme nominee who will use their position to attack our health care.
  • Protect Our Care is active in fourteen states, and our advocates have already scheduled events on Monday in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. We’ll be holding a rally at Monument Square in Bangor, Maine; a press conference in front of Sen. Bob Corker’s office in Nashville, Tennessee; and a press call with local leaders, health care advocates, and a former judge in Alaska.
  • President Trump and Congressional Republicans have spent the past 18 months waging a relentless war on our health care, with millions losing coverage, premiums increasing by double digits, and protections for people with pre-existing conditions eroding. But all of these pale in comparison to the damage that an extreme Supreme Court justice could do — read more to find out all that’s at stake for health care with this Supreme Court vacancy.

Protect Our Care’s national leaders and local advocates are available for on the record interviews. Please contact [email protected].

ashoup
In News

Health Care on the Line with Trump’s SCOTUS Pick

To: Interested Parties

From: Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care

Date: July 6, 2018

Re: Health Care on the Line with Trump’s SCOTUS Pick

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For the last 18 months, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have been waging a relentless war on our health care, resulting in millions of people losing coverage, double digit premium rate increases, and weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Now, with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the President has an opportunity to tip the balance of the Supreme Court further in his favor and appoint a justice hostile to our health care, as he has repeatedly promised he would do. Make no mistake: our health care is on the line if Trump succeeds in appointing an extreme judge who will rubber stamp his anti-health care agenda.

Here’s why:

Trump’s Shortlist Includes Nominees Who Have Demonstrated Hostility to Health Care

Reportedly, President Trump has narrowed his list of potential justices to three people: Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Raymond Kethledge. All three are on the Federalist Society-approved list of justices Trump released. The Federalist Society, as should be noted, has been fighting the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since before it was even signed into law and has consistently pushed judges very hostile toward women’s health.

Specifically, Judge Kavanaugh has argued that a president could declare a law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it “even if a court has held or would hold the statute constitutional.”

Judge Barrett has already written that she believed the ACA should have been declared unconstitutional, that Roe v Wade was “erroneous,” and the ACA’s birth control benefit was “an assault on religious liberty.”

Consumer Protections, Including Prohibitions on Discriminating Against the 130 Million People with Pre-Existing Conditions, Are At Risk

Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies were able to cherry pick who they wanted to cover and would often discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions by charging them more, dropping coverage once people got sick, or denying coverage altogether. The ACA banned all of those practices, providing health security to millions.

  • Roughly half of nonelderly American adults, or up to 130 million people, have at least one pre-existing condition.
  • Nationally, the most common pre-existing conditions were high blood pressure (44 million people), behavioral health disorders (45 million people), high cholesterol (44 million people), asthma and chronic lung disease (34 million people), and osteoarthritis and other joint disorders (34 million people).

These protections have consistently been the most popular component of the law among not only Democrats, but Republicans and Independents as well.

Nevertheless, President Trump has taken every opportunity he has had to dismantle the consumer protections and market reforms in the ACA. Though he failed to enact legislation to repeal the ACA, on his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to use whatever tools they could to undo as much of the ACA as it could. His administration has further taken actions to sabotage the law by allowing insurance companies to sell junk plans that do not have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, among other things.

Don’t forget: Trump campaigned on ending the ACA by any means necessary, and he had his sights on the Court from the very beginning. In fact, as a candidate Trump said he would have a “very strong test” for Supreme Court nominees, pointing to his “disappointment” in Chief Justice John Roberts, as “somebody that should have, frankly, ended Obamacare, and he didn’t.” As the leading coalition fighting against Republicans’ ongoing efforts to repeal and sabotage health care and working instead to protect coverage for millions of Americans, Protect Our Care knows that Trump’s meaning is clear: he has a litmus test for his Supreme Court nominees, and repealing the ACA is on that test.

After all, ending protections for people with pre-existing conditions is already the official policy of the Trump Administration. Normally, the Department of Justice (DOJ) defends federal law in court. However, the Trump Administration has taken the extraordinary step of joining the latest partisan lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the ACA and has argued the Court needs to take away the provisions in the law that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage or charging people more because of a pre-existing condition. If the Trump administration had its way, overnight the 130 million people with a pre-existing condition would once again be at the mercy of insurance companies.

This case should not be taken lightly — three prior challenges to the Affordable Care Act (NFIB, et al. v. Sebelius, King v. Burwell, Hobby Lobby v. Burwell) have made their way to the Supreme Court, despite early doubts among legal scholars.  

Women’s Health Care is on the Line

President Trump’s campaign promise to appoint biased justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade — and the dangerous consequences of making safe abortion a crime in this country — have been widely reported. But many other women’s health services are under threat with this appointment. Among them:

Medicaid is Also at Risk

Medicaid is not only supported by three-quarters of Americans, it is a lifeline for one in five people, providing critical preventive care, substance use treatment, acute care, and more to more than 70 million people. Medicaid is the primary provider for long-term care in the country, covering 6 in 10 nursing home residents. It is also the primary provider to help people with disabilities stay in their homes, and pays for roughly half of the births in this country.

But the Trump Administration has launched a new assault on Medicaid enrollees by pushing states to adopt rigid rules (so-called “work requirements”) that are designed to be impossible for to be met and therefore prevent coverage. These new rules are just beginning to work their way through the courts, and while a federal district court judge recently blocked them in Kentucky, they could very well make their way to the high court soon.

THE BOTTOM LINE: All 100 Senators must reject a nominee that would take away, rather than protect, our care.

If Trump appoints an extreme nominee to the bench, and the Senate does not intervene, the balance of the court will turn against Americans’ right to health care. The Supreme Court should be a check on President Trump’s war on health care, not a rubber stamp on it.

ashoup
In News

New TV Ad Warns About Danger from Supreme Court Pick for People with Pre-Existing Conditions

Washington, D.C. –  Protect Our Care will air a new TV ad sounding the alarm about the damage and devastation that could be done if the U.S. Senate confirms a Supreme Court Justice who will allow the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans to overturn protections for more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Watch the ad here.

After failing to advance legislation in Congress, the Trump administration has already gone to court to overturn protections for people with pre-existing conditions and now, with Senator McConnell’s help, he plans to install a Supreme Court Justice who will vote to overturn them. The ad, called “Emergency,” urges people to call their Senators and ask them to reject a nominee who will once again allow insurance companies to strip health care from the very people who need it most.

“The Trump Administration has already gone to court to overturn protections for people with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes and cancer. Now, Donald Trump is trying to install a Supreme Court Justice who will tip the balance in his favor. It’s an emergency,’” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “If you want to preserve protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and you want to protect and improve upon the Affordable Care Act, then you cannot let the Trump Administration have free reign to install a radical Supreme Court Justice who will do just that.”

The ad will run in Washington, D.C, Anchorage, and Bangor during cable morning shows this week in advance of Trump’s announcement on July 9th.

View the national ad: https://youtu.be/sDn8iVLO9S8

View the Alaska ad: https://youtu.be/RNpet40ulMg

View the Maine ad: https://youtu.be/9XMI5SmaucM

SCRIPT

“This is an emergency.

“Donald Trump has already gone to court to overturn health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions…

“One hundred thirty million Americans have pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes and asthma.

“Now, Trump and Mitch McConnell have a plan to install a Supreme Court Justice who will overturn those protections for people with pre-existing conditions,

“Who would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage.

“It’s up to us to stop them.

“Call your senator. Tell them to stop any nominee who will support Trump’s lawsuit that overturns health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

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