Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions “In Greater Danger Than Ever” As Anti-Health Care Senate Republicans Rush to Fill Supreme Court Seat

On November 10 – One Week After Election – SCOTUS Will Hear Oral Arguments in Republican Lawsuit to Overturn the Affordable Care Act

Republican Senators Support or Refuse to Oppose Lawsuit & Voted to Gut Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage

Coverage protections for people with pre-existing conditions and other health care benefits are “imperiled” and “in greater danger than ever” as anti-health care Senate Republicans rush to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Oral arguments on the Republican lawsuit to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act and its pre-existing conditions protections are scheduled for November 10, just one week after Election Day. Republican incumbents and candidates support or refuse to oppose this lawsuit, and they are on the record in favor of gutting these core health care protections.

“Senate Republicans were already on defense across the country for voting to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and plowing ahead with the dangerous partisan lawsuit to dismantle those coverage protections entirely,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “The Supreme Court’s handling of this lawsuit will affect health care coverage for Americans across the country, and that is what’s at stake.”

Here is a look at the implications for the health care law:

POLITICO: Ginsburg’s death leaves Obamacare in greater danger than ever

• Few legal observers thought that the Supreme Court was gearing up to overturn or significantly wound the health care law in a case the justices will hear exactly one week after Election Day. The new vacancy increases the likelihood the court could undercut Obamacare’s popular insurance protections for preexisting conditions.

• The lawsuit has been validated by Republican-appointed justices in lower courts, and Obamacare will have one less ally on the conservative-dominated bench when the Supreme Court considers the law’s fate this fall.

• “I’ve told people the big wild card is whether or not Ginsburg makes it to hear the case. It turns out she didn’t, and that introduces a lot of uncertainty,” said Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor who’s tracked the lawsuit and supports Obamacare.

HuffPost: What Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Could Mean For The Obamacare Hearing Nov. 10

• With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promising a vote on a Donald Trump nominee to replace Ginsburg, the court could be back at full strength by early November, with a new judge expanding the conservative majority to six. But that is only weeks away, which means it’s also possible the court would hear the case with just eight justices.

• If there’s a 4-4 tie, with Roberts joining the three remaining liberals but the other four conservatives voting to strike down the law, the 5th Circuit ruling would stand. The law would be unconstitutional, but a district judge would have to decide which parts stay on the books ― after which, potentially, there could be another appeal to the 5th Circuit and then maybe even back to the Supreme Court.

• Almost nothing is certain at this point except perhaps that a ruling to strike down the law would be devastating to millions of Americans, whether it’s people who get Medicaid or subsidized private insurance from the law ― or benefit from its protections for people with preexisting conditions.

VICE News: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Puts Obamacare in Jeopardy

• A challenge to the landmark healthcare law is scheduled to come before the court on Nov. 10, just days after Election Day. With Ginsburg on the court, there had been five justices who’d protected the law against its earlier challenge in 2012 and appeared likely to protect it against the latest attack from Republican officials. But her Friday death has turned Obamacare’s survival from a seeming sure thing to an open question.

• “After her death, the politics are completely different on the court. The lineup has completely changed, and there’s a much higher likelihood that the court could strike the individual mandate and potentially other parts of the law,” said University of Illinois-Chicago Law Professor Steve Schwinn. “For supporters of Obamacare, there’s real cause for concern.”

• It’s unclear exactly where things go from here. But what looked like a politically motivated and legally tendentious attack on Obamacare from Republican officials suddenly appears like it could actually succeed.

• “There’s more risk now that it could be invalidated,” said University of Richmond School of Law Professor Carl Tobias told VICE News.

Vox: What Ginsburg’s death means for the Supreme Court’s Obamacare case

• It was assumed in Washington, up until Friday, that Obamacare would probably be safe because the same five votes that preserved it in 2012 were still on the bench. But now, with Ginsburg’s death, that is no longer true. There is a lot of uncertainty about what happens next, but the bottom line is this: The ACA is much more at risk of being overturned today than it was the day before.

• “It’s a much more significant possibility than it was,” Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor who worked in the Obama administration, told me. “I’m much more worried about the ACA than I was two hours ago.”

• The consequences of the Court overturning Obamacare would be severe: The Medicaid expansion and the insurance marketplaces that cover 25 million people would be nullified, the protections for people with preexisting conditions would be voided. Overnight, the US health care system would be thrown into chaos.

###