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Vulnerable Republicans Still Losing on Health Care As Toxic Legal Push to End Pre-Existing Conditions Protections Casts Shadow Over 2020 Election

Republicans Worry Democrats Have Maintained the Upper Hand on Health Care” As Data Shows Exactly That & Toxic Lawsuit Argues GOP Tax Giveaway “Secretly Requires the Courts to Repeal the Entire Affordable Care Act

New polling from CNN shows that Americans disapprove of how President Trump — and by extension, Senate Republicans — are handling health care policy by double digits. That matches recent reporting on the president’s own internal polling, which “showed the public trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the issue.” Vulnerable Republicans are continuing to see fallout from their years of trying to tear down their constituents’ health care protections, and their refusal to pass bipartisan legislation to bring down prescription drug costs presents another serious liability.

Millions of Americans are heading into the 2020 election with their health care hanging in the balance after the Supreme Court declined to rule on the reckless GOP lawsuit to tear down pre-existing conditions protections (which Senate Republicans “sparked” as part of their corporate tax giveaway). Republicans and the courts have kept this threat alive, providing voters with one more reminder of why they can’t trust GOP Senators to protect their health care.

“Republicans are paying the price for years of trying to overturn the health care law and gut protections for pre-existing conditions and other critical benefits,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “Vulnerable Senators are hoping they can avoid scrutiny of their toxic records in Washington, but the facts are clear and voters have been consistent that they do not trust Republicans on health care policy.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Hill: Trump scrambles to defend pre-existing conditions record amid ObamaCare lawsuit

By Peter Sullivan

January 20, 2020

Key Points:

  • Pre-existing conditions protections were included in the Affordable Care Act, which was passed by Democrats in Congress on a party-line vote. Republicans have attempted to weaken or repeal the law dozens of times over the years.
  • Democratic attacks on Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare and weaken pre-existing condition protections proved successful in the 2018 midterms, when Democrats won back control of the House.
  • Voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on handling health care, by a margin of 44 percent to 29 percent, according to an October poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. A Gallup poll this month found more U.S. adults ranked health care as “extremely important” to their votes than any other issue, at 35 percent.
  • With pre-existing conditions shaping up to be a key issue in November, Trump has recently been defending his record on the issue, while drawing little to no attention to earlier attacks on the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
  • That suit, brought by a group of GOP-led states seeking to overturn the entire health law, is supported by the Trump administration.
  • Joe Antos, a health policy expert at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, argued Trump has largely been ineffectual on health care.
  • Levitt, of the Kaiser Family Foundation, pointed to one action that has gone into effect under Trump’s presidency: expanding short-term health insurance plans that are less expensive than ObamaCare plans but do not have to cover pre-existing conditions.
  • “I don’t think anybody can be a credible politician running for office without supporting those kind of protections,” [Antos] said. “The public didn’t used to know this term, and now the public is very knowledgeable about what this term means.”

Read the full story here.

Read more about how vulnerable Republicans continue to pay the price for their toxic health care record:

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