#GOPTaxScam Two Years Later: An Ongoing Attack That Leaves Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions “Hanging in the Balance”

“The Republican Party’s Threat to Overturn the Law… Will Remain a Political Issue in the Coming Campaign” As Millions of Americans Stand to Lose Coverage & Consumer Protections

Every GOP Senator Voted for Corporate Giveaway That “Sparked” This Toxic Health Care Lawsuit. If It Succeeds, “Protections for People With Pre-Existing Conditions Would Be Wiped From the Books.”

This week marks two years since Senate Republicans pushed their tax scam through Congress, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has kept a spotlight all week long on how the GOP’s deeply unpopular legislation put corporate special interests and the wealthiest Americans ahead of hardworking families. Two years later, the winners and losers are clear.

One consequence of this reckless tax scam still looms — “After failing to agree on an Obamacare replacement for years,” Senate Republicans weaponized their giveaway to gut the health care law’s coverage requirement, which “sparked” a Republican-led lawsuit to tear down the law in its entirety. This week, a federal appeals court ruling kept that threat alive, granting Republicans another day in court for their legal crusade to send health care costs soaring, gut coverage for “roughly 20 million Americans who are directly served by the ACA,” and end protections for “more than 50 million people with pre-existing medical conditions.”

“Every Senate Republican helped lay the foundation for this dangerous attack on the health care law, which still threatens to send costs soaring and end coverage protections for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “When Republican Senators gutted a key provision of the health care law, they were setting a legal attack in motion that could send the nation’s health care system into total chaos — yet another reason why voters oppose the GOP tax law and will reject Republicans’ toxic agenda next year.”

Thanks to Republicans’ corporate tax giveaway, this week’s ruling “thrusts the health care law to the forefront of the 2020 elections” in a stark reminder of why Republicans “have no credibility” on what voters call “the most important issue facing the nation today.”

More on how the dangerous lawsuit Senate Republicans “sparked” with their tax scam leaves health care protections hanging in the balance for millions of Americans:

• HuffPost: Court Rules Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional, Puts Entire Law At Risk

• New York Times: “Some 17 million Americans could lose the coverage gained through the Affordable Care Act if the law were thrown out, more than 50 million people with pre-existing medical conditions could again be denied health insurance and insurers would no longer have to cover people up to age 26 under their parents’ plans.”

• POLITICO: “the appeals court’s decision could renew pressure on President Donald Trump and Republicans to explain how they will preserve insurance protections for preexisting conditions after failing to agree on an Obamacare replacement for years.”

• CNN: “The court case is part of what once was considered a long-shot attempt to gut the Affordable Care Act… Texas and other Republican-led states sued after the Republican-led Congress in 2017 cut the tax penalty for those who lacked insurance to zero as part of the year-end tax overhaul. That move came after a Republican-led repeal effort failed at the last minute due to the vote of the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.”

• The Atlantic: A Case That Should Have Been Laughed Out of Court May Kill Obamacare

• Axios: “Swing states and red states stand to lose the most if the courts ultimately throw out the Affordable Care Act”

• Los Angeles Times (Opinion): “the Republican Party’s threat to overturn the law, which has reformed almost every corner of the American healthcare system since its enactment in 2010, will remain a political issue in the coming campaign.”

• Kaiser Health News: “Hanging in the balance is not only health coverage for the roughly 20 million Americans who are directly served by the ACA, but also hundreds of millions more whose health care and coverage have been affected by the thousands of changes that the ACA made to federal law. Those include… perhaps most important politically, protections for people with preexisting conditions.”

• BuzzFeed News: “But the second part of the Texas lawsuit argues that the individual mandate is an essential part of the ACA — and if it is unconstitutional, then the entire legislation is. On its own, this would likely lead to tens of millions of people losing health insurance as Obamacare markets fold, as well as the return of preexisting condition discrimination; it would also kill Medicaid expansion, which covers millions of people with low incomes.”

• Bloomberg: Obamacare Fate in Limbo as Mandate Tossed, Court Fight Rages On

• Spectrum News: “After Congress zeroed out the penalty for not having insurance, Texas and other Republican-led states brought the lawsuit arguing that means the whole health care law must be scrapped.”

• Vox: “the fate of millions of Americans’ health care hangs in the balance.”

• Axios: The ACA legal fight isn’t even close to over

• Bloomberg: Obamacare Ruling Sets a Health Care ‘Time Bomb’ in 2020 Election

• Washington Post: “If the appellate decision is upheld, the most popular element that would come unglued is insurance protections for Americans with preexisting medical conditions  — the issue that helped House Democrats regain the majority in last year’s elections.Other elements of the law that are at potential risk include insurance subsidies for most people buying health plans through ACA marketplaces, designed for individuals and families that cannot get affordable health benefits through a job; the expansion of Medicaid in three dozen states; the ability of young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until they turn 26; and no-charge preventive care for older Americans on Medicare.”

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