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President Trump Misleads American People on Pre-Existing Conditions & Trumpcare

April 30, 2017
Blog Post
This morning on CBS's Face the Nation, President Trump told host John Dickerson that the latest version of Trumpcare would protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, despite all of the facts to the contrary.

TRUMP: "Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it. I said, 'has to be.'"

DICKERSON: "In one of the fixes, it was discussed pre-existing was optional for the states..."

TRUMP: "Sure, in one of the fixes, and they're changing it."

DICKERSON: "So, it will be permanent?

TRUMP: "Of course."

The truth is that Republicans' Trumpcare bill would mean higher costs and less coverage for Americans -- including those with pre-existing conditions. The latest revision of the harmful Trumpcare bill would gut the protection for people with pre-existing conditions by allowing states to waive essential health benefits and community rating rules, which prevent insurers from charging people with pre-existing conditions more. This will make it all but impossible for millions of Americans fighting illness to afford the coverage they desperately need.

Don't take our word for it – the American Cancer Action Network wrote:

"In short, the proposal could lead to bare bones coverage plans that push significant costs onto patients who access care. Reducing the front-end premium cost of a plan by eliminating covered benefits increases the financial burden to patients who face significant out-of-pocket costs for uncovered, but medically-necessary services to treat life-threatening diseases like cancer."

The effects of the Trumpcare bill would be so egregious that House Republicans attempted to exempt Members of Congress and their families from the bill, which they quickly attempted to backpedal due to public outrage.

President Trump and Congressional Republicans must immediately drop their efforts to increase costs on American families while destroying their health care and work with Democrats to lower health costs, improve quality, and expand coverage.