Coronavirus Would Qualify as Pre-Existing Condition But GOP Is Fighting to Take Away Those Protections, Other Health Care Benefits

The coronavirus would qualify as a pre-existing condition–and thus a barrier to obtaining health insurance–if not for the Affordable Care Act, but that isn’t stopping Republicans from fighting to tear down the health care law and the protections it provides. 

Not a single Senate Republican has taken any meaningful action to stop their party’s lawsuit from “plow[ing] forward,” putting protections for pre-existing conditions coverage and other benefits at risk of being overturned. Vulnerable Senate Republicans also refuse to demand the White House open a special enrollment period for health coverage, which would make it easier for the millions of Americans losing their jobs and employer-provided health insurance to get coverage. 

“Not one incumbent Republican has taken meaningful steps to stop the GOP’s lawsuit or demanded that the Trump administration open up special enrollment during a global health crisis,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Senate Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue and will have to own this toxic agenda in November.” 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

AP: In a time of COVID-19, ‘Obamacare’ still part of the action

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

May 3, 2020

Key Points:

• COVID-19 could have stamped a person “uninsurable” if not for the Affordable Care Act. The ban on insurers using preexisting conditions to deny coverage is a key part of the Obama-era law that the Trump administration still seeks to overturn.

• Yet as defenders of the ACA submit written arguments to the Supreme Court next week countering the latest challenge to its existence, the Trump administration remains adamant that former President Barack Obama’s health law, known as “Obamacare,” must go.

• Some GOP lawmakers in contested races this fall are unnerved by the prospect of Trump administration lawyers asking the Supreme Court during the coronavirus outbreak to toss out a law that provides coverage to at least 20 million Americans.

• From nearly 12 million people to 35 million could lose their workplace coverage due to layoffs in the coronavirus shutdown, according to an estimate by the consulting firm Health Management Associates. They have more options because of the Obama-era law.

• Karen Pollitz of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said people seeking an individual health insurance policy “would have been very much at risk in today’s pandemic” were it not for the health law.

• Last week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some 30 health groups called on Congress to help maintain health insurance coverage during the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. They urged a broad approach that includes subsidies for COBRA, opening up the ACA to more people and allowing those with tax-sheltered health accounts to use that money for premiums.

• But the White House is resisting anything that includes “Obamacare.” Instead the administration is using a health system relief fund created by Congress to reimburse hospitals for treating uninsured patients with COVID-19.

• That “is way less than adequate,” said Richard Pollack, president of the American Hospital Association. “What we need to do is provide coverage in a more comprehensive way for people.”

Read the full story here.

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