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Republicans Are Full of It About Their Health Care Agenda

The White House and the Republican National Committee are blatantly lying to voters about health care. The truth is that Republicans continue their health care sabotage and have tried to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions — and they’re suing right now to allow insurers to deny those people coverage.  Read more Republicans who are full of it:

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel repeatedly denied that Republicans want to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

McDaniel: “Now, they are using health care as a fear tactic, and they’re going across these states and saying Republicans are going to take away pre-existing conditions. It is just false. The president has said that is not true, and we’re combating that, that lie of Democrats.”

McDaniel: “Well, the Democrats have really tried to fearmonger on health care and tried to tell people that Republicans are going to take pre-existing conditions. It is flat-out false. The president has been on the stump refuting that. We have candidates sharing stories of their family members, of their kids, of their mothers who have pre-existing conditions. Of course we would never take away that right.”

New York Times: “It is Democrats, by passing the Affordable Care Act in 2010, who introduced meaningful protections for Americans with prior illnesses. And Republican officeholders have taken numerous actions that would tend to weaken those protections — in Congress, in states and in courts. The Trump administration introduced a sweeping new policy just last week that would allow states to sidestep Obamacare’s requirement to cover pre-existing conditions.”

McDaniel falsely claimed that the Affordable Care Act pushed people onto skimpy health plans, when in reality, Republicans are the ones pushing skimpy plans.

McDaniel: “Well, I think voters recognize what a failure Obamacare was, and how it’s raised health care prices across country, it’s shut down markets, it’s made it harder for people to get good health care. They may have health insurance, but they don’t have access to good health care.”

Washington Post: “The Trump administration issued new insurance rules Wednesday to encourage more Americans to buy inexpensive, skimpy health plans originally designed for short-term use.  The policies will be available for 12 months at a time, up from a current limit of three, and customers will be able to renew them for additional years. The short-term plans do not have to cover preexisting conditions and certain kinds of health care that the Affordable Care Act requires.”

RNC National Spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany falsely claimed that under Republican leadership, “nothing will change” about pre-existing conditions protections.

McEnany: “No. This president has been unmistakably clear from the Republican primary debate stage that that he would be taking care of those with preexisting conditions. Nothing will change.”

NBC News: “We totally support people with pre-existing conditions,’ Trump said at the White House last week. This is false. The Trump administration is backing a Republican-led lawsuit that claims Obamacare’s protections for pre-existing conditions are illegal. If the suit succeeds, insurers would be able to start denying coverage to those people. The White House has not proposed alternative legislation that would offer those with pre-existing conditions the protections Obamacare gives consumers.”

Sarah Sanders falsely claimed that Trump’s health care plan covered pre-existing conditions.

Sanders: “Look, the president’s healthcare plan that he’s laid out covers pre-existing conditions. The president wants to lower premiums to make healthcare more affordable. Nobody will be charged higher premiums if they keep their coverage, and nobody will be denied coverage under the president.”

NPR: “Republicans have gotten that message; even those who voted to repeal the ACA or joined a lawsuit by 20 red states to overturn the federal law now say they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. Still, GOP lawmakers have not introduced any plan that would be as protective as the current law.”

Mike Pence claimed Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine fought to protect pre-existing conditions even though DeWine tried to kill the Affordable Care Act without concern for maintaining pre-existing condition protections.

Pence: “Pence made a couple of factual missteps and over-statements during his remarks when talking up DeWine and attacking the candidate’s opponent, Democrat Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general and past director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  ‘From the first day of his efforts as attorney general, (DeWine) joined the nationwide fight to end the scourge of Obamacare even while preserving pre-existing conditions for every person in the great state of Ohio,’ Pence said.”

Columbus Dispatch: “DeWine indeed joined other GOP attorneys general in suing unsuccessfully to scuttle the Affordable Care Act, which includes the mandate that insurers sell policies to people with chronic health conditions. But DeWine said nothing at the time about the need to maintain coverage for pre-existing conditions.”

Pence claimed Trump and Governor Walker would protect pre-existing conditions even though they back a lawsuit that could eliminate those protections.

Pence: “‘This administration is going to stand with the governor and create more free markets in health care and we will always protect pre-existing conditions in Wisconsin,’ Pence said.”

PolitiFact: “Walker also backed a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin and 19 other states that a New York Times news story said could eviscerate major parts of the Affordable Care Act and allow insurers to again deny people coverage because of their medical condition or history.”

Secretary Azar claimed Trump had taken steps to stabilize insurance markets even though Trump’s policies caused premiums to be higher than they would have otherwise been.

Azar: “Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, says the president’s actions tell the real story. Mr. Trump took decisive steps ‘to stabilize insurance markets and expand choices for American consumers,’ Mr. Azar said in a recent speech in Nashville. ‘The president who was supposedly trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act has proven better at managing it than the president who wrote the law.’”

Kaiser Family Foundation: “Combined with estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, our analysis suggests the elimination of the cost-sharing subsidy and individual mandate penalty, as well as expansion of more loosely regulated plans, has caused on-exchange silver premiums to be 16% higher than would otherwise be the case.”

Data and Research Manager: