The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which has provided health insurance to millions of Americans.
According to government lawyers, Obamacare became invalid when the previous Republican-led Congress axed parts of it.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden attacked the move, saying President Donald Trump had put millions of lives at risk during the coronavirus pandemic.
Health care will be a key battleground in this year’s presidential election.
Some 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage if the court overturns the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was introduced by President Barack Obama.
Obamacare’s popular provisions include banning insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26. Millions of low-income Americans were able to obtain insurance due to the act.
President Trump says the scheme costs too much and has promised a different plan to replace it, preserving some popular elements of the existing law but covering fewer people.
Under Obamacare, millions of people in the US must purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty.
In 2017, Congress removed a key plank of the policy, eliminating the federal fine for those who did not sign up, known as the “individual mandate”.
In its filing to the Supreme Court on June 25, the justice department argued “the individual mandate is not severable from the rest of the act”.
As a result, it said: “The mandate is now unconstitutional as a result of Congress’s elimination… of the penalty for non-compliance.”
President Trump cannot rely on Congress to complete the dismantling of Obamacare because the Democrats took control of the lower house in 2019.
Joe Biden, who wants to rally the public behind an expanded Affordable Care Act, said some coronavirus survivors could lose their comprehensive healthcare coverage if the act was overturned.
He said: “They would live their lives caught in a vice between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take healthcare protections away from American families.”
In a statement on June 26, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Obamacare was “an unlawful failure”.
The statement said: “It limits choice, forces Americans to purchase unaffordable plans, and restricts patients with high-risk preexisting conditions from accessing the doctors and hospitals they need.”
The US has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, recording 2.4 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and 122,370 deaths – more than any other country.
However, the true number of infections is likely to be 10 times higher than the reported figure, according to the latest estimate by health officials.
The Supreme Court is unlikely to hear the case before voters go to the polls in November, media report.
He said on July 18: “He is actively, actively trying to undermine the healthcare system in this country using millions of Americans as political pawns in a cynical game.”
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would vote early next week on a motion for repealing ObamaCare only.
However, with at least three Republicans against the plan B, it is probably doomed, too.
Donald Trump backed the just-repeal-it plan on July 17 but changed his tune on the next day by proposing to simply let ObamaCare – which has failed to curb rising costs as insurance options dwindle – die on its own.
“As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!” the president tweeted.
Donald Trump has invited all Republican senators to discuss healthcare over lunch at the White House on July 19.
Without a replacement bill, analysts have estimated that millions of people would lose health insurance.
The GOP’s proposed alternative includes steep cuts to Medicaid, a healthcare program for the poor and disabled, removed the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty and implemented a six-month lockout period for anyone who lets their health coverage lapse for more than two months.
The House of Representatives passed a similar version of the Senate bill, but slashed taxes on the wealthy used to pay for the health scheme. The Senate proposed a similar provision but was forced to ditch it amid opposition.
That task falls to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Mitch McConnell said: “Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of ObamaCare will not be successful.”
Republicans view the 2010 legislation as an overreach of the federal government and say patients have less choice and higher premiums.
The GOP’s proposed alternative had kept key ObamaCare taxes on the wealthy, while imposing sharp cuts to healthcare for the poor and allowing insurers to offer less coverage.
Two Republican senators, Mike Lee and Jerry Moran, said the new legislation did not go far enough in repealing ObamaCare.
Jerry Moran said “we should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy” while for Mike Lee, “in addition to not repealing all of the ObamaCare taxes [the bill] doesn’t go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly ObamaCare regulations”.
Two senators – Rand Paul and Susan Collins – had already opposed the bill.
Rand Paul said the bill kept too much of the “ObamaCare taxes”, while Susan Collins expressed concerns about cuts to Medicaid.
With the two new opponents, Republicans – who hold 52 seats – no longer have enough votes to pass the bill in the 100-member Senate.
Moderate Republicans had also said the bill would have harmed some of their vulnerable constituents.
The non-partisan Congressional Budgetary Office (CBO) found the bill would have stripped 22 million Americans of health insurance over the next decade.
On top of that, polls had shown ObamaCare remained popular among Americans – a survey by the Washington Post and ABC News on July 17 found more than twice as many people preferred Barrack Obama’s program to the proposed alternative.
According to a congressional report published on June 26, some 22 million Americans could lose their health insurance over the next decade under a Senate bill to replace ObamaCare.
The non-partisan Congressional Budgetary Office (CBO) said the bill would reduce the budget deficit.
Similar legislation passed by the House was also said to leave millions uninsured. Some Republicans have voiced reservations about the plan.
However, the White House disputed the CBO’s figures.
Image source Wikimedia
Responding to the report, it said: “The CBO has consistently proven it cannot accurately predict how healthcare legislation will impact insurance coverage.”
The report is a review of draft legislation unveiled by the Republican Party last week.
It is unlikely to be approved by Democrats, who see the proposals as cruel and unfair.
The CBO said that 15 million more people would be uninsured by 2018 under the proposed legislation than under current law, largely because the penalty for not having insurance would be eliminated.
President Donald Trump’s party is struggling to secure the 50 votes it needs to get its bill through the Senate when it comes to the floor.
The Senate bill would slash taxes for the wealthy offering less help for working families to buy medical insurance.
Republicans have rejected the notion that anyone will die as a result of their healthcare plan.
However, several key Republicans this week reversed course, partly due to an amendment by Congressman Fred Upton to provide $8 billion over five years towards coverage for sick people.
Image source Wikimedia
But Democrats said the amount was woefully inadequate.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “The Upton amendment is like administering cough medicine to someone with stage four cancer.”
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of ultraconservative lawmakers, indicated the Upton amendment would not be a deal-breaker for them.
In March, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said 24 million people would lose health insurance under the bill, which is called the American Health Care Act.
Conservatives want to see a complete rollback of ObamaCare, while moderates are concerned about losing voters who like the existing law.
President Barack Obama’s overhaul of healthcare extended insurance coverage to millions of Americans, but some have experienced rising premiums in recent years.
One of ObamaCare’s popular elements is that it bans insurers from denying coverage to patients who are ill with “pre-existing conditions”.
President Donald Trump has insisted the revised bill will keep that, although it is thought that states will be able to opt out of making that an absolute provision.
House Republicans have unveiled a plan to replace ObamaCare, the signature health care law of former President Barack Obama.
The ObamaCare replacement would repeal penalties for those who do not buy health insurance.
The legislation would also replace income-based subsidies to help with the cost of premiums with age-based tax credits.
Democrats immediately criticized the plan, saying it would drive up the costs of health care.
The Affordable Care Act helped 20 million previously uninsured Americans get health insurance.
However, increases in insurance premiums have irked many Americans.
The new plan would reduce the role of the federal government in helping Americans afford healthcare.
The White House said in a statement: “Today marks an important step toward restoring health care choices and affordability back to the American people.”
President Donald Trump looked forward to working with Congress to repeal and replace the law, it said.
He has described ObamaCare, which was passed in 2010 and is seen as Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, as “a disaster”.
The Republican Party has majorities in both chambers of Congress but divisions remain on the details of what should replace ObamaCare, which is popular in many states, including some governed by Republicans.
The new legislation is expected to cover fewer people than those who gained insurance under Barack Obama.
A group of four Republican senators have already said that a draft of the legislation they reviewed did not adequately protect low-income people who received Medicaid coverage under ObamaCare.
The proposal unveiled on March 6 would preserve some popular elements of the existing law, including allowing young people to remain on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26.
Insurers would also remain banned from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
While penalties for those who don’t buy health insurance would be scrapped, those who let their coverage lapse could see their premiums raised by 30% by insurers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill would “drive down costs, encourage competition, and give every American access to quality, affordable health insurance”.
He said no one would have “the rug pulled out from under them”.
However, some conservatives have already voiced concerns that the bill does not go far enough.
“It still looks like ObamaCare-lite to me,” said Senator Rand Paul.
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