The Affordable Care Act has expanded healthcare coverage to more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans.
But because it was passed by Democrats in the Obama years, yeah, Republicans don’t like.
California v. Texas, a case led by 18 attorneys general and President Trump’s Department of Justice, is the latest effort from the GOP to overturn the ACA, again trying to use the courts to declare the entire ACA unconstitutional.
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) is joining Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and 13 of their Senate colleagues in requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of the Treasury conduct an analysis of how repealing ACA would affect health care coverage in the United States.
“Passed in 2010, the ACA drastically expanded the number of Americans with health insurance. Before the ACA, over 45 million Americans were uninsured and the 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage,” the senators wrote.
“After the ACA’s passage, over 20 million people gained health care coverage—including roughly 12 million people who were newly enrolled due to the ACA’s expansion of the Medicaid program. People with pre-existing conditions could no longer be denied coverage health insurers were required to expand coverage for mental health and substance use treatment; and young adults could stay on their parents’ health coverage until age 26—making it easier for millions of Americans to access care.”
“In the midst of a global pandemic that has killed roughly 220,000 people in the U.S. and infected over 8 million others, the President of the United States is actively asking the Supreme Court to eliminate the ACA’s critical health protections,” they continued. “Republicans in the U.S. Senate had the opportunity to pass legislation barring the President from advocating against the ACA in court, but they refused—choosing instead to ram through Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination and place the health care law at even greater risk.”
The Supreme Court part of this is key. The court is scheduled to begin hearing arguments in California v. Texas on Nov. 10.
If the ACA is repealed, experts estimate that over 20 million Americans and 740,000 Virginians will lose health coverage.
Story by Chris Graham
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