GOP Assault on Americans' Health Care Continues
After voting to take away consumer protections for people with pre-existing conditions in their brutal Trumpcare bill, Republicans are now waging a court battle against the ACA putting in dire peril the health care of 130 million Americans who currently have health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, mental illness or substance abuse – and all those who will be diagnosed with a health condition in the future.
A majority of Democrats and Republicans want to preserve protections in the Affordable Care Act that make it illegal for insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, according to a new poll.
Opening arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ACA are set to begin in federal court in Texas on Wednesday. Although the lawsuit was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 75 percent of Americans don't want those protections reversed … Some 72 percent of those polled are also in favor of keeping provisions that prohibit insurers from charging sick people more, which is also being challenged in the lawsuit.
But this is nothing new.
In the monstrosity of Trumpcare, House and Senate Republicans voted last year to take away health coverage from tens or millions of Americans and gut key protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, prohibits insurers from turning away consumers with preexisting medical conditions, a practice that was once standard in the industry.
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The American Health Care Act, as the House Republican healthcare bill is called … would allow states to obtain a waiver from the federal government to eliminate another Obamacare mandate that prohibits insurers from charging people with preexisting medical conditions more for insurance.
That means that some people with preexisting conditions could see their premiums rise dramatically if the House bill becomes law.
In other words, a patient with diabetes, heart disease or cancer might still be "guaranteed" coverage, but could only obtain it if he or she pays five or 10 times as much for a health plan.
At every opportunity, Republicans are making health care more expensive and more unreliable for hard-working families – attacking people with pre-existing conditions, cynically driving up insurance premiums, and handing massive tax breaks to the same pharmaceutical companies raising drug prices.
While Republicans raise Americans' health costs and hand tax breaks to Big Pharma, Democrats are committed to defending patient protections in the ACA and are calling for bold action to crack down on drug price hikes, and enable Medicare to negotiate A Better Deal for the people.