Visits: 2
The U.S. Department of Justice said it supports a federal judge’s ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be overturned, signaling a major shift in the Trump administration’s stance on the Obama-era federal health care law.
“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed,” three department lawyers wrote in a letter submitted Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is now considering the case. “Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule.”
When asked for comment on the legal filing, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told ABC News, “The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal.”
(CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images, FILE) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center, Oct. 13, 2017, to discuss the Affordable Care Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused the Trump administration of “broadening its monstrous ambitions from destroying protections for pre-existing conditions to tearing down every last benefit and protection the Affordable Care Act provides.”
“The Trump administration decided not only to try to destroy protections for Americans living with pre-existing conditions, but to declare all-out war on the health care of the American people,” Pelosi said in a statement Monday night. “Democrats will continue to fight relentlessly to protect people with pre-existing conditions and to deliver lower health costs and prescription drug prices for every American.”
Democrats in the House of Representatives plan on Tuesday afternoon to unveil legislation that Pelosi’s office said will “protect people with pre-existing conditions, reverse the Trump administration’s health care sabotage, and take new measures to lower health insurance premiums for families.”
(The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE) President Donald J. Trump speaks, with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar by his side, during an event on lowering drug prices in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 11, 2018. A coalition of Republican-led states filed a lawsuit in Texas last year against the federal government, arguing that Congress’ decision to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalty — a fee Americans paid if they didn’t enroll in some form of health insurance coverage — should render the entire law invalid.
“Once the heart of the ACA — the individual mandate — is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall,” according to the lawsuit.
At the time, the Justice Department argued only two provisions of the health care law should be tossed out: one that requires insurance companies to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions and another that prevents insurers from charging a higher premium due to pre-existing conditions. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the rest of the law, including Medicaid expansion, can remain in place.
In December, a Texas-based district court judge ruled that the individual mandate is in fact unconstitutional, nullifying the entire health care law. The case is now awaiting a decision by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.
(Corbis via Getty Images, FILE) Protesters hold a small peaceful demonstration in support of health care on Sept. 23, 2017 in Livingston, Montana. The state of Montana expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The outcome of the case could translate into an abrupt and disruptive turn in the nation’s health care system. Some 8.8 million people signed up for a plan on Healthcare.gov for the 2018 coverage year.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar — who supported the lawsuit — has insisted that the administration has a “plan B” to protect people with pre-existing conditions if the court strikes down the entire health care law, commonly known as Obamacare.
“The president has been 100 percent clear: He will not sign a repeal-and-replace package for Obamacare that does not adequately protect individuals who have preexisting conditions,” Azar told ABC News in October. “There are many ways to do that, but he will not sign any package that does not protect people with pre-existing conditions.”
