Posted on 06/26/2020 6:37:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
The move comes after Trump confirmed his administration would continue to press for its elimination, ignoring warnings about the risk of voter backlash.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to wipe out Obamacare, arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law must be struck down with it.
The late-night brief, filed Thursday in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, carries major implications for the presidential election. If the justices agree, it would cost an estimated 20 million Americans their insurance coverage and nullify protections for pre-existing conditions.
The Trump administration's brief comes as the U.S. has recorded more than 120,000 deaths from COVID-19, with nearly 2.5 million confirmed cases. On Wednesday, the nation hit a new record for the highest daily total of new infections reported with more than 45,500.
For the roughly 25 million people out of work and collecting jobless benefits, the ACA's marketplaces and Medicaid expansion provide avenues to gain subsidized health insurance with consumer protections.
Trump campaigned in 2016 on repealing the ACA but fell just short in Congress in 2017. His legal position is consistent with his determination to undo President Barack Obama's achievements.
Health care is a top issue for voters in surveys, and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden — the vice president when Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, was signed into law — has made it a high priority to protect and enhance it if elected.
In the brief, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco and other Justice Department officials sided with Texas in a case led by Republican attorneys general, arguing that the requirement for people to buy insurance is no longer valid after Congress scrapped the penalty for non-compliance in 2017.
The Justice Department added: "The individual mandate is not severable from the rest of the Act."
The brief includes a section pointedly arguing that the Affordable Care Act's pre-existing condition rules must be overturned as well. Those rules forbid insurers from turning away customers or charging them more on the basis of factors like age, gender and health status. The position contradicts Trump's insistence that he will protect people with pre-existing conditions.
The White House has not offered a replacement proposal if the case succeeds in court.
While the idea of overturning the ACA is popular with conservatives, some Republicans want to drop the issue for fear of political blowback in an already difficult political climate. The backlash to Republican efforts to undo Obamacare helped Democrats capture the House majority in 2018.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chair of the Senate health committee, has called the Justice Department's position "far-fetched."
The case is seen by legal experts as a long shot. Five justices who upheld Obamacare against a constitutional challenge in 2012 remain on the court — Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal-leaning members.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized the DOJ's late-night filing.
“President Trump and the Republicans’ campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus crisis is an act of unfathomable cruelty," she said in a statement Thursday night.
Democrats: Healthcare is a human right.
Meaning: According to Democrats you have a right to...
1 - force someone to nurse you when you are sick
2 - force someone to make medicine for you
3 - force someone to provide food and housing for you when you’re sick
4 - force someone to diagnose your ailments
5 - force someone to make medical devices for you
6 - ...
This is the “right” Democrats have decided you now have.
Dems don’t mean to force anyone to take care of anyone. They are simply collecting revenue. Dem voters who believe they are purchasing health care are just duped. That’s all
Sorry, I have to say that I think this is a very bad move on Trump’s part. Obamacare has been in place long enough for people to have organized their lives around it, and simply dismantling it without some at least transitional plan will be a disaster for him.
We need these provisions because the implementation of Obamacare caused medical costs to rise even more than they had before. 25 years ago, I could have a doctor’s visit and test for $50. Now a physical costs $400! I kid you not. To rent an oxygen machine that costs at most $6k is $200/week. I can rent a truck for less than that.
We should not make any changes until we figure out why costs are so high and figure out how to deal with that.
Health care may not be a right, but people also don’t have the right to withhold health care so they can make an **unreasonable** amount of money.
I agree.
Bigtime. This is the ONE issue I am completely against.
What the heck?
Why?
What a headline. Are they just printing faxes direct from the DNC without even editing them now?
Always have.......................
Well said. Too bad Obamacare wasn’t withheld until they did the core work.
It’s the magic word “amid” that journalists have grown so fond of. It allows one to jam together disparate issues into one narrative
I was so angry about that!!!! If you want to solve a problem, figure out what it is first!
It’s the Dem way: Don’t fix it, just make people beholden to it.
How many are you getting?
The ACA guarantees one per year for free.
And if Trump succeeds in getting rid of the ACA **without replacing it with a better system,** then we won’t get free physicals under the ACA, you see?
I am not happy with the ACA, I am not happy with employer-connected health insurance, and the reason we need either is that basic health care has become so wildly expensive that we have to have something. Most families cannot afford $2000 and up for health insurance, bit they also can’t afford to go without.
When women **must** work just so the family can afford health insurance, there is something really wrong....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.