ICYMI: Politicians Try to Distance Themselves From Opposition to the Affordable Care Act — After 10-Year Effort to Destroy It

PLANNED PARENTHOOD VOTES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, April 28, 2020
CONTACT: Planned Parenthood Votes Media Office; 212-261-4433; [email protected]
Planned Parenthood Votes Pressroom

Washington, DC — New analysis from the Washington Post details the decade-long effort by Trump and his political allies to gut the Affordable Care Act — and how many of those same politicians are trying to distance themselves from their records ahead of the 2020 election, as the law proves a crucial health care pillar during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the midst of a pandemic, the ACA's protections for people with pre-existing conditions and expanded health care coverage are more critical than ever. Yet even as the COVID-19 outbreak grew worse, Trump doubled down on his attacks, refusing to open a special enrollment period for the ACA and continuing to back a lawsuit that would overturn the law. Politicians on the ballot this November — from Donald Trump to incumbents like Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Martha McSally (R-AZ) — have attacked the Affordable Care Act, jeopardizing essential health services and protections for millions of people.

Washington Post: Republicans are relying on the Affordable Care Act to respond to the pandemic
By Lawrence R. Jacobs, Suzanne Mettler and Ling Zhu
April 27, 2020

• "For more than a decade, the Affordable Care Act has been the Republican Party’s nemesis. As it was first debated in Congress in 2009, when it was enacted in 2010 and through the next six years of implementation, Republican leaders rallied supporters by vociferously opposing it and calling for repeal. The Trump administration and states controlled by Republicans remain hostile to the ACA."
• "But the coronavirus pandemic’s fast-moving destruction has pushed Republicans to rely on Barack Obama’s signature law to respond to the crisis[.]"
• "Our research shows that this about-face cannot be explained by the pandemic alone. The party’s rank-and-file — and many other Americans — have shifted to supporting the ACA and expanded government payments for health care. The pandemic is giving Republicans cover to follow changing public opinion."
• "In 2017, after Republicans won the White House and controlled both chambers of Congress, they came within one Senate vote of killing the law. Since then, the Trump administration has worked to weaken or potentially destabilize the law by approving state waivers from ACA Medicaid rules, shortening the annual enrollment period and certifying cheaper health plans with less adequate coverage than had been possible under the Obama administration. It has also joined legal challenges that would overturn the law outright."
• "After the ACA became law in 2010, Republican lawmakers were in sync with their rank-and-file in resisting it."
• "More respondents reported appreciation for how the ACA had given them more access to health care and how it was covering seniors’ prescription drugs, subsidizing private health insurance and allowing parents’ plans to cover their children until they were 26 years old. Partisanship is giving way to pragmatism."

As the pressure on our public health infrastructure mounts, Planned Parenthood Votes will continue to call attention to attacks on the ACA from politicians who have put our health at risk:

• Donald Trump and his administration have sabotaged the Affordable Care Act at every turn — including backing a legal challenge that could eliminate the law, undermining core protections like the guarantee that health insurance through your employer must cover birth control, and pushing harmful Medicaid expansion "work requirements" that kick people off their health care.
• Before a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and dismantle protections for pre-existing conditions, Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) urged her colleagues to ‘get this f---ing thing done,' jeopardizing affordable coverage for 709,000 Arizonans. She also refused to oppose the Trump administration's lawsuit to overturn the ACA, saying “That’s their decision” and “it’s not my role” to oppose it.
• Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) has voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would take away protections from more than 420,000 Montanans who have pre-existing conditions.
• Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) has voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, jeopardizing health care coverage for 588,000 Coloradans. Gardner initially dodged questions about the Trump administration's ACA lawsuit, before agreeing with the argument that the law is unconstitutional.
• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which could jeopardize protections for more than 4.2 million North Carolinians who have pre-existing conditions. He also backed the Trump administration's ACA lawsuit and asserted, “I support anything that ultimately takes [the ACA] off the table.”
• Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, putting coverage at risk for 230,000 Iowans who receive insurance from the ACA and over 1.2 million Iowans with pre-existing conditions. Ernst dodged questions about the Trump administration's lawsuit to overturn the ACA, saying, “Um, I am not going to make a determination on that, I am not an attorney.”
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted in favor of the Trump-McConnell tax scam, which gave a massive tax handout to billionaires and corporations and put the Affordable Care Act at risk.
• Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) committed to voting for Republican legislation that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act, even though it could result in one million Georgians losing their health coverage — before he had even read the Republican bill.
• John James, who could challenge health care champion Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) in Michigan, called the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions a “monstrosity.”

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