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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Wants to Ditch Preexisting Condition Protections. Here Are the Times He Promised Not To.
The president turns his back on years of promises.
PATRICK CALDWELLJUN. 8, 2018 3:27 PM
The Trump administration declared Obamacares protections for people with preexisting conditions unconstitutional on Thursdaythanks to the tax bill passed by congressional Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump in December.
The announcement came in a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a filing in a federal court in Texas. While it wont cause any immediate changes in health laws, it represents a major break from repeated promises from Trump and congressional Republicans to preserve the protections for preexisting conditions.
Sessions announcement involves some complicated legal reasoning. Republicans slipped a provision into their tax-cut bill that effectively eliminated Obamacares individual mandate requiring people to buy insurance. Due to Senate rules, the GOP couldnt technically erase the mandate without triggering a 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster, so instead it just reduced the penalty for failing to buy insurance to zero dollars. But now, Sessions argues, a 2012 Supreme Court ruling comes into play. The court ruled that the individual mandate was constitutional because it could be considered a tax. But when the penalty is zero dollars, its no longer a tax, Sessions claims, so now its unconstitutional. And, Sessions says, you cant separate the mandate from the laws various consumer protections. So if the mandate is unconstitutional, he argues, the courts need to toss out the laws regulations on preexisting conditions as well, since Congress determined that the individual mandate was essential to the preexisting conditions protections. (Conveniently, the legal filing asks the court to wait until 2019 to strike down these provisionsdelaying the full consequences until after vulnerable GOP politicians face midterm elections.)
While Trump and his fellow Republicans have always been eager to describe Obamacare as a horrendous law, they made sure to reassure voters that they intended to keep the Affordable Care Acts protections that barred insurance companies from charging higher rates to people who have a current or past medical condition. That has always been one of the most popular provisions of the law.
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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/donald-trump-preexisting-condition-obamacare-jeff-sessions/
quartz007
(1,216 posts)Since I am nearing 80, I must admit I do not hold my breath for most politicians to keep their promises. There are of course a few exceptions. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden are some of the exceptions.
BigmanPigman
(51,608 posts)Con artist and salesman sold the ignorant and racists a bill of goods. I hope they all enjoy getting sicker and more bankrupt. I did NOT VOTE for him and should NOT have to suffer the same fate.
Stallion
(6,474 posts)that would be EXTREMELY unpopular to a lot of non-aligned voters
BigmanPigman
(51,608 posts)I have been saying this for a year...this is THE SINGLE issue that the voters in both parties agree on and the Dems are finally realizing it.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Even a lot of conservatives like the pre existing condition protections.
Freethinker65
(10,023 posts)Westcoast52
(34 posts)He is addicted to destroying something, anything, at least once a day. Whether he was for it doesn't mean a thing. He may believe he is for something while undermining it, and will deny what he does while he does it. Remember immigrant children taken from their parents? It was the Democrats fault! Regardless of the loyalty of his base, America can only take so much of this before Trump becomes seen as Public Enemy Number One. He should go back to Mar-A-Lago while he still can.