Trying to take away health coverage during the coronavirus crisis is “pretty dumb”
But Trump and the GOP are doing it anyway
Yesterday the U.S. had its highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases reported since the crisis began.
Today the Trump administration is trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the Affordable Care Act.
If kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance and taking away protections for people with pre-existing conditions in the middle of a global pandemic seems like a bad idea to you, well, you’re not wrong.
(Even Republican strategists think it’s “pretty dumb.”)
But Donald Trump and the Republican attorneys general behind this lawsuit will not stop attacking the Affordable Care Act, even as our nation struggles to deal with an unprecedented public health crisis.
Here in Ohio, this lawsuit would have devastating consequences if Trump and the GOP are successful. The Center for American Progress estimates that more than 860,000 Ohioans could lose their health coverage.
Nearly five million Ohioans with pre-existing conditions — people like Marjie and Ella — would lose critical protections.
Add to that the fact that as many as one-fourth of Ohio’s hospitals would be at risk for closure.
In 2019, Ohio Democrats sounded the alarm about the Affordable Care Act lawsuit and its potentially disastrous impact with news conferences in Steubenville, Zanesville, Columbus, Toledo and Springfield.
One year later, the stakes are even higher with this lawsuit. More than 100,000 Americans have died. Millions have lost their jobs (and their employer-based health insurance).
Trump’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act aren’t just “pretty dumb.”
They’re cruel.
