Tag: pre-existing conditions

The Republican ‘Protect Act’ Will Protect Nobody’s Health Care

As Election Day draws near, another important date is looming for tens of millions of Americans with preexisting health conditions: Nov. 10, the day the Supreme Court will hear arguments on striking down the Affordable Care Act.

Despite the claims of Republican lawmakers, who swear abolishing Obamacare will not result in millions losing insurance, an examination of their alternative, the so-called Protect Act, shows that they’re lying through their teeth.

The GOP effort to bulldoze the ACA was put on blast Wednesday when Democrat Jon Ossoff, whom current poll averages show in a tight race against Georgia Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue, confronted Perdue during a debate with his deceptive talking points on the future of the American health care system. Continue reading.

Amid peaking pandemic and attacks on Americans’ care, Phillips votes to lower RX prices, reduce premiums, protect pre-existing conditions

Phillips: “We tolerate – even condone – a system that places profit over people. It’s costing us billions of dollars, bankrupting thousands of families, and surely costing lives. Americans are getting ripped off and we can do

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As COVID-19 cases reach record numbers and the Trump Administration continues its attempt to gut existing health care law, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) joined a bipartisan House majority in voting to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act. The legislation represents the largest overhaul of American health care in more than a decade and expands Medicaid coverage, caps premiums for American families, negotiates lower prescription drug prices, strengthens protections for pre-existing conditions, bans junk plans, and promotes equity in health care.

After the vote, Phillips took to the House Floor, urging the Senate to join in protecting Americans’ access to affordable, high-quality health care and lifesaving medications. In a passionate speech, Phillips shared the story of his daughter’s battle with childhood cancer, and invited his colleagues in Congress to do their jobs and build a health care system that places people over profit and benefits every American no matter their age, race, gender, zip code, income, or condition:

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Click here to watch Phillips’s remarks about the urgent, personal, and patriotic need for Congress to fix our health care system. Continue reading “Amid peaking pandemic and attacks on Americans’ care, Phillips votes to lower RX prices, reduce premiums, protect pre-existing conditions”

If the ACA Is Repealed Under Texas v. Azar, Millions Will Lose Health Insurance Coverage

Center for American Progress logoTo download the table that shows increases in the number of uninsured people by congressional district, click here.

The lawsuit brought by Republican state officials to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA), Texas v. Azar,continues to work its way through the U.S. legal system. In December 2018, a right-wing district court judge in Texas sided with opponents of the law, finding that the entire ACA should be struck down. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear oral arguments and decide whether to overturn the district court’s partisan decision. Worryingly, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals also appears to be questioning whether the defenders of the ACA have standing to intervene in the earlier ruling. Regardless of how the court rules, the odds are high that the case will then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. For the foreseeable future, the ACA is in danger.

If the lawsuit ultimately succeeds, it would have devastating consequences for nearly every American who has health coverage, whether through their employer, the individual market, Medicare, or Medicaid. The Urban Institute estimates that overturning the ACA would result in almost 20 million more Americans being uninsured and would lower federal health care spending by $135 billion in 2019 alone. In this column, the Center for American Progress estimates the increase in the number of uninsured people by congressional district that would occur if the ACA were struck down.

Background on Texas v. Azar

Texas v. Azar is a politically charged attempt to repeal the ACA. In February 2018, Texas and 19 other states filed a lawsuit arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional. Their widely panned legal argument claimed that because the Republican-sponsored Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the individual mandate penalty, it rendered the rest of the ACA invalid.

View the complete July 9 article by Emily Gee and Charles Gaba on the Center for American Progress website here.

THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION: Mother Of A Child With A Pre-Existing Condition: ‘I’m Worried About Our Whole Family’

Take a break from Trump and hear from regular Americans about the real state of our Union. Watch the mother of a child with a pre-existing condition talk about the struggle to pay for her family’s health care as her son recovers from a brain tumor.

“Well, I’m worried about our whole family, honestly. … Medical bankruptcies are a reality and they were a much bigger reality before the Affordable Care Act.” – California resident

WATCH HERE

There’s more to health care access than pre-existing conditions

Health care has been a universal topic of discussion this political season. Candidates from both parties say they are in favor of it, although definitions of “it” vary widely. But what all agree is that it has to do with access. Can I get the care I need when it is needed, or are there barriers such as pre-existing conditions? These are questions that vex patients and insurers including me in my former role as CEO of a health plan.

Politicians have been talking mostly about pre-existing conditions as the way to ensure access to health care. But as a former health care insurance company CEO who now studies health care finance, I see this view as too simple. There are multiple levels of access relevant here – availability of insurance, affordable premiums, limited cost-sharing, sufficient number of providers and freedom of choice.

Is access just having any insurance policy?

Republicans generally define access in terms of insurance coverage, at low premiums. And this election cycle, many of them have professed their support for coverage of pre-existing conditions. But they haven’t said how insurers would do this. However, many believe that the full coverage plans required by the Affordable Care Act overshoot the mark, as they drive premiums up.

View the complete November 6 article by J.B. SIlvers, Professor of Health Finance, Weatherhead School of Management & School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University on TheConversation.com website here.

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.”

Continue reading “Republicans Are Full of It About Their Health Care Agenda”

These Republicans are misleading voters about our Obamacare fact checks

SPOILER ALERT:  Guess who else is on the list?  Our own Erik Paulsen.

Somewhere, somehow, a memo must have gone out to Republican lawmakers who voted for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare: If you are attacked for undermining protections for people with existing health problems, jab back by saying the claim got Four Pinocchios from The Washington Post.

That’s not true. Republicans are twisting an unrelated fact check and are misleading voters. We have found at least seven politicians who have done this.

Rep. Peter J. Roskam (Illinois’s 6th District): In a debate on Oct. 22, he said: “Sean [Casten] has falsely accused me of being against protecting people with preexisting conditions and that was fact-checked by The Washington Post, who gave that four Pinocchios.”

View the complete October 29 article by Glenn Kessler on the Washington Post website here.

Health scare 2018: How Minnesota campaigns are exploiting voters’ anxiety over health care

Credit: Getty/Sebastian Rose

The battle over health care — something that has become a defining feature of the 2018 midterm elections — has, in the final stretch of the campaign, come down to Republicans and Democrats making two different but equally emphatic assurances to voters.

Democrats are running on the argument that Republicans, if they retain majorities in Congress, would take another stab at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and would aim to kill some of the law’s most popular planks — including its protections for individuals with pre-existing health conditions.

Republicans, meanwhile, insist that they have never, and would not ever, attempt to undermine the Obamacare provision that helped people with pre-existing conditions access more affordable health coverage. They’re issuing a warning of their own: if Democrats take control on Capitol Hill, they will push plans that would dramatically expand government health care programs — paving the way to ruin them at the expense of the seniors and families who need them most.

View the complete October 19 article by Sam Brody on the MinnPost website here.

Trump team wants health plans that reject you for pre-existing conditions

The Trump administration is inviting states to attack health care protections for pre-existing conditions just two weeks before midterms.

Credit: Susan Walsh, AP Photo

Republicans are forging ahead with their crusade to sabotage key consumer protections covered by Obamacare, and they’re doing it just two weeks before the midterm elections.

“The Trump administration announced a new policy on Monday making it easier for states to circumvent coverage requirements and consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act,” the New York Times reports.

In other words, the administration is adjusting rules to allow health care plans that don’t have to cover pre-existing conditions and don’t offer other essential coverage, such as prenatal care.

View the complete October 23 article by Eric Boehlert on the ShareBlue.com article here.

Three Times Karin Housley Would Have Gutted Protections For People With Pre-Existing Conditions

St. Paul – Karin Housley has repeatedly supported health care plans that would not protect people with pre-existing conditions.

Here are three times when Housley would have gutted protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

1. Housley supported the 2017 Republican Health Care Plan (That Would Have Gutted Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions)

Housley supported the Republican health care plan that failed in Congress last year by one vote that would have gutted protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The Republican plan also would have increased people’s health care costs and imposed an age tax which would have allowed insurance companies to charge older Americans up to five times more. Continue reading “Three Times Karin Housley Would Have Gutted Protections For People With Pre-Existing Conditions”