July 18, 2018

What Kavanaugh's appointment could mean to health

Maine Beacon -  The Affordable Care Act is once again in the crosshairs of the Republican Party and this time the means of attack is the U.S. Supreme Court.

Advocates are warning that should nominee Brett Kavanaugh have a chance to rule on one of the pending challenges to the health care law, 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions are at risk of losing coverage.

“Anybody who thinks [the ACA] is not going to be litigated sometime in the future is nuts,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) candidly told a reporter last week after meeting with Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the now empty U.S. Supreme Court seat.

Health care groups say that the conservative Washington, D.C. Circuit Court judge would not only move the court further right on many issues, but that he has a particularly troubling record when it comes to health care.

...One case that could invalidate the ACA entirely is Texas v. Azar, in which a group of 20 Republican attorneys general and governors, including Governor Paul LePage, are arguing that the repeal of the individual mandate penalty passed in the GOP tax law renders the ACA unconstitutional, and by extension protections for people with pre-existing conditions are also moot.

Sen. Susan Collins, who is seen as a pivotal swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation, wrote to the Department of Justice in June expressing “concern” for individuals with pre-existing conditions should the lawsuit succeed.

“This is no small matter,” Collins wrote. “Fifty-seven percent of Americans responding to a poll said that they or someone in their household suffers from a pre-existing condition. These numbers include 590,000 Mainers, roughly 45 percent of the state’s population.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Illinois has a law requiring Automobile Insurance, and there isn't even a murmur of discontent from Any Republican.