America’s public health system, already stretched thin by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, could look even shakier come spring 2021. According to the Daily Beast, 18 Republican attorneys general still plan to participate in a lawsuit that could repeal the Affordable Care Act within a year. Representatives for five of these attorneys general confirmed to the outlet that they remain committed to overturning Obamacare regardless of the pandemic, which continues to spread in the very states they preside over. “It’s always been a question of legality, not health care policy,” a spokesperson for the Tennessee Attorney General argued.
This is not the first GOP attempt to weaken the law, and repealing Obamacare would have an enormous impact on the country’s public health system, pandemic or not. But, as the Daily Beast notes, the timing of the decision—potentially during the recovery stage—gives it “a seismic significance.” At least 20 million Americans covered by Obamacare will lose their coverage if the law is repealed. “The only thing worse than a public health pandemic is a public health pandemic without health care,” Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said. Two coronavirus cases mentioned in the article—one of a teenage boy who died after being turned away from a hospital because he didn’t have insurance, another of an uninsured woman who, after going to the hospital for treatment, was billed $35,000—give an early preview to what could become the new normal, depending on which way the Supreme Court rules.
At a Fox News Town Hall earlier this month, Donald Trump explained his administration’s reasoning for following through with the case. “We want to terminate Obamacare because it’s bad,” he said, calling the law “very defective.” When asked by an audience member about the GOP’s failure to come up with an alternative—NBC notes that Trump has not backed a specific plan since he failed to replace the act in 2017—he first praised himself for “[getting] rid of the individual mandate, which was the worst part of Obamacare” and then claimed that “we have many healthcare plans now where it’s 60 percent, even 65 percent less expensive than Obamacare.” While Trump added that “what we’d like to do is totally kill it,” he praised his administration for “managing [the remaining portion] fantastically.” The way to “get you really fantastic healthcare,” he told the audience member, is “to win back the house, keep the Senate, keep the White House.”
To no surprise, the former vice president continues to deride Trump’s pursuit of the case. Yesterday, Joe Biden called the GOP’s continued push “unconscionable” given that “Americans are already afraid of the impact the deadly COVID-19 pandemic is having on their lives—they don't need the added stress of losing their health insurance.” He again urged to “drop the lawsuit,” something he advocated for last week in a letter to Trump and other conservatives. NBC called Biden’s health care plan “Obamacare-plus,” preserving the status quo while helping uninsured people buy coverage by boosting subsidies, and competing with private insurers with an additional “public option.”
Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, wants “Medicare for All,” which would upend the current system and provide the same plan to everyone regardless of their employment status. “It is nearly impossible to believe that anyone can still think it’s acceptable to continue with a health care system that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured,” Sanders said earlier this month while addressing the coronavirus outbreak. “The cruelty and absurdity of that view is more obvious in the midst of this crisis than it has ever been.”
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