In Defense of the ACA
By Bethany Swanson
USW Intern
Everyone deserves affordable health care, and being sick should not disqualify a person from getting insurance. Most Americans agree that health care is a fundamental right, but that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from attacking protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
This month, the Justice Department announced it would not defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against a lawsuit brought by 20 state attorneys general. The lawsuit claims that Congress’s repeal of the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have insurance renders the rest of the law unconstitutional. The Justice Department argued that because Congress eliminated the ACA’s individual mandate as of 2019, the court should strike down the ACA directive that insurers cover everyone who seeks insurance and charge everyone the same rate, whether or not they have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, asthma and cancer.
If the 20 red states and the Justice Department prevail, nearly 17 million people could lose their insurance.
The ACA stopped the common insurance practice of rejecting applicants who were ill or had pre-existing conditions. And the ACA’s community rating provision forbid insurers from raising premiums based on a person's health history. One of the major victories of the ACA was incorporating these provisions and guaranteeing that those with pre-existing conditions could obtain and afford health insurance. Because Republicans failed to repeal the law outright, they’re now picking away at what makes it work, even its most popular and important aspects like the provisions protecting people with common health conditions.
Americans should not live in fear or face bankruptcy because they fall ill. Instead of undermining Obamacare, Congressional Republicans must work with Democrats on a bipartisan solution to protect coverage and lower health care costs for all Americans.
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