Tag: Obamacare

Ruling on Health Care Law Leaves Consumers Confused

Law remains in place for now

The most immediate impact of a ruling striking down the 2010 health care law could be confusion and depressed sign-ups in the law’s insurance marketplaces on the final day of open enrollment.

The law remains in place for now — but some consumers may not understand that.

If the federal judge’s ruling Friday night is affirmed, it could cause upheaval in the U.S. health care system. Its immediate effects are minimal, though, as the ruling is expected to be stayed as the case winds through the courts and did not come in the form of an injunction.

View the December 15 article by Mary Ellen McIntire on The Roll Call website here.

Federal judge in Texas strikes down ObamaCare

A federal judge in Texas on Friday struck down the Affordable Care Act, throwing a new round of uncertainty into the fate of the law just one day before the deadline to sign up for coverage for next year.

U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, and that because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid.

The ruling is certain to be appealed, and legal experts in both parties have said they ultimately expect the challenge to the health law will not succeed. ObamaCare will remain in effect while the case is appealed.

View the complete December 14 article by Peter Sullivan on The Hill website here.

DNC on Health Care Ruling in Texas

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after a federal judge in Texas ruled core provisions of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, siding with Trump and Republicans:

“Republicans are as close as they’ve ever been to destroying the Affordable Care Act and taking health care away from millions of Americans. This decision threatens the lives of so many who have benefitted from the Affordable Care Act – from people with pre-existing conditions to children who have finally gotten access to the care they deserve. It must be appealed immediately.

“This case is emblematic of the concerted effort by Republicans at every level of government – from statehouses, to Congress, to the White House. For nearly a decade now, the Republican Party has been defined by its cruel, costly, and relentless goal to take away people’s health care. They didn’t stop after the Supreme Court ruled the ACA constitutional in 2012. They didn’t stop after the American people overwhelmingly rejected their attempts to repeal the law last year. They didn’t stop when American voters across the country went to the polls last month and voted for Democrats up and down the ballot. And as today’s decision makes clear, they won’t stop until they have reached their goal of completely dismantling the ACA. Continue reading “DNC on Health Care Ruling in Texas”

Want to Know More About: Status of Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions

CNN Reality On Sen. Ted Cruz’s Comment “Everyone Agrees We’re Going To Protect Pre-Existing Conditions:” “Not So Much. This Casual Comment From Senator Cruz Does Not Track With Reality.” CRUZ CLIP: “We can protect pre-existing conditions. You need to understand, everyone agrees we’re going to protect pre-existing conditions.” AVLON: “Not so much. This casual comment from senator Cruz does not track with reality. After all, right now, Texas attorney general is leading a legal charge with 19 other states to overturn Obamacare, including its massively popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions.” [New Day, CNN, 9/24/18; VIDEO]

John Avlon: “Senator Republicans Have Floated A Bill That Would Keep The Protections But There’s One Big Problem. It Doesn’t Limit What Insurance Companies Can Charge To Cover The Pre-Existing Conditions Like Obamacare Does.” AVLON: “Senator Republicans have floated a bill that would keep the protections but there’s one big problem. It doesn’t limit what insurance companies can charge to cover the pre-existing conditions like Obamacare does and critics say that loophole allows conservatives to act like they’re protecting.” [New Day, CNN, 9/24/18; VIDEO]

John Avlon: “Facts Matter. Telling Folks You Support A Popular Provision That Goes To The Heart Of Their Health And Wallet While Also Supporting Legislation That Would Do The Opposite That’s A Special Kind Of Hypocrisy.” AVLON: “In the 11 states that has the most people with pre-existing conditions, Trump crushed Hillary Clinton with an average of 26 points. No wonder trump told a crowd in Las Vegas this.” TRUMP CLIP: “Donald Trump and Republicans will protect patients with pre-existing conditions.”AVLON: “Facts matter. Telling folks you support a popular provision that goes to the heart of their health and wallet while also supporting legislation that would do the opposite that’s a special kind of hypocrisy.” [New Day, CNN, 9/24/18; VIDEO]

Republicans hoped voters would forget they tried to kill Obamacare. They bet wrong.

Credit: Joe Raedle, Getty

Earlier this month, over a year after Republicans tried multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I asked people in the Twittersphere if their representatives in Congress had voted for repeal and, if so, if they held a town hall to explain their vote and put forward a better vision for health care. Within 24 hours, over 500 people had tweeted back their experiences.

The responses reflected not just people who disagreed with their member of Congress, but people who felt ignored by them. The list of those who chose to vote and disappear in 2017 is long, including many who now find themselves in highly contested races — among them Republicans Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters of California, Peter Roskam and Mike Bost of Illinois, Steve Chabot and Steve Stivers of Ohio, and Bruce Poliquin of Maine.

Sensitive to criticism for avoiding their constituents, some lawmakers have taken to holding a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” style of constituent meetings. They often label them town halls, but in reality they are either paid events or telephone calls with limited capacity where only “random” questions are accepted. Few sound satisfied with these interactions. It’s certainly not representative democracy at its finest.

View the complete September 21 article by Andy Slavitt on the Courier-Express website here.

Republican Sabotage Leads To Higher Premiums & Fewer Americans Getting The Care They Need

Trump and Republicans are continuing their health care sabotage that has already led to higher premiums and fewer Americans with access to the care they need. This November, Democrats are holding them accountable. Here’s the latest:

Democrats are holding Republicans accountable for trying to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Washington Post’s Daily 202: “Democrats are pummeling Republican candidates for governor and Senate over a pending lawsuit by 20 GOP-led states that could allow insurance companies to stop covering people with preexisting medical conditions. Underscoring how the politics of Obamacare have changed — even in red states — this issue is being highlighted more than any other right now in Democratic television commercials. Public and private polling validates that it’s an effective line of attack.” Continue reading “Republican Sabotage Leads To Higher Premiums & Fewer Americans Getting The Care They Need”

Legal Case to Smash Obamacare Hands the Democrats a Hammer

The following article by Abby Goodnough was posted on the New York Times website September 5, 2018:

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act rally at Burnett Park in Fort Worth, where a federal judge heard arguments on the constitutionality of the law.CreditCreditMax Faulkner/Star-Telegram, AP

FORT WORTH — More than 1,000 miles from the caustic Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Brett M. Kavanaugh, a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday listened to arguments about whether to find part or all of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, in a case that may end up before a newly right-leaning set of justices.

The case has become not simply a threat to the landmark legislation. Democrats have sought to make it both a flash point in the battle over whether to confirm Judge Kavanaugh and a crucial prong in their strategy to retake control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections.

It has already made some Republicans jumpy, especially those in tight re-election contests, because the Trump administration explicitly said in a legal filing in June that it agreed with the argument of Texas and 19 other Republican-controlled states that the law’s protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions are not constitutional. The administration is refusing to defend those guarantees. In that sense, although the case threatens one of the Democrats’ proudest achievements, it is also proving to be something of an election-year gift to their party.

View the complete article here.

NEW POLL: 75% Of Americans Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections That Trump & Kavanaugh Would Dismantle

A new poll found that 75 percent of Americans, and 58 percent of Republicans, want to keep ACA protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Despite that, Trump filed a lawsuit to destroy these protections. Oral arguments in this lawsuit begin today, and it could be contested all the way to the Supreme Court. Which brings us to Trump’s Supreme Court nominee…

We know Kavanaugh would rule to dismantle the ACA, because Trump himself promised that his Supreme Court nominees would do that.

“If I win the presidency, my judicial appointments will do the right thing unlike Bush’s appointee John Roberts on ObamaCare.” – Trump, 2015

Kavanaugh previously wrote that a future president could refuse to enforce the ACA, even if it had been upheld by the courts.

New Yorker: “Late last year, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit voted, two to one, to uphold President Obama’s health-care reform, known as the Affordable Care Act (aca). Kavanaugh dissented, primarily on the ground that the lawsuit was premature. In a sixty-five-page opinion, Kavanaugh appeared to offer some advice to the Republicans who are challenging Obama in the election this year. ‘Under the Constitution,’ Kavanaugh wrote, ‘the President may decline to enforce a statute that regulates private individuals when the President deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold the statute constitutional.’”

NOTE:  Rep. Paulsen has voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protects people from skyrocketing insurance premiums or no insurance at all due to pre-existing conditions.

New Scam Pre-Existing Conditions Bill Provides No Cover to Vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh

The following article by Colin Seeberger and Jake Faleschini was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 30, 2018:

Credit: Bill Clark, Getty

Next week, while President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, fields questions at his confirmation hearings, a judge in a North Texas federal district court will hear oral arguments in a landmark health care case on which the next Supreme Court justice could ultimately rule. The case, brought by 20 Republican attorneys general, challenges the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions and limitations on price gouging older Americans. Congressional Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the ACA’s individual mandate, opening the door for the lawsuit. In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that President Trump personally instructed the U.S. Department of Justice not to defend the specific parts of the ACA against this new legal attack—a dramatic departure from precedent. Continue reading “New Scam Pre-Existing Conditions Bill Provides No Cover to Vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh”

How States Are Combating Federal ACA Sabotage

The following article by Aditya Krishnaswamy, Rhonda Rogombe and Madeline Twomey was posted posted on the Center for American Progress website August 30, 2018:

Protesters gather in front of the office of Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) to ask him to explain his vote on the Affordable Care Act, Miami, Florida, August 2017. Credit: Joe Raedle, Getty

The Trump administration, with help from its Republican allies in Congress, has worked tirelessly to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. The administration has eliminated the individual mandate penalty; expanded access to short-term junk plans and association health plans; and halted cost-sharing reduction payments. The Center for American Progress estimates that the average marketplace enrollee will pay about $1,000 more for health insurance next year than they should due to the mandate repeal and the short-term plan rule alone.

The Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the ACA have taken many forms. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights the administrations’ efforts to decrease enrollment in 2018. In 2017, for instance, the administration shortened the open enrollment period by 50 percent—from 90 days to 45 days—and cut advertising funds by 90 percent, from $100 million to $10 million. More recently, the administration slashed the budget for enrollment assistance, cutting ACA navigator funding by more than 70 percent, from $36 million to $10 million. A longer enrollment period and greater advertising and navigator funding are critical to expanding access to marketplaces and assisting individuals looking to obtain coverage through the complex health care market. Continue reading “How States Are Combating Federal ACA Sabotage”