The bastards are feeling emboldened:
The Trump administration on Monday said the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down, in a dramatic reversal.
In a filing with a federal appeals court, the Justice Department said it agreed with the ruling of a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Obama-era health care law.
In a letter Monday night, the administration said "it is not urging that any portion of the district court's judgment be reversed." [snip]
It's a major shift for the Justice Department from when Jeff Sessions was attorney general. At the time, the administration argued that the community rating rule and the guaranteed issue requirement -- protections for people with pre-existing conditions -- could not be defended but the rest of the law could stand.
After the Justice Department took that position, federal District Judge Reed O'Connor struck down the entire law and the case is currently before a federal appeals court.
Trump and the administration repeatedly promised -- particularly leading up to the midterm election -- to protect people with less-than-perfect medical histories.
But this shift in the Justice Department's stance doubles down on stripping away all the protections that were a hallmark of the landmark heath reform law.
Overturning the law would have far-reaching consequences -- way beyond disrupting coverage for the millions of people who get their health insurance on the exchanges or through Medicaid expansion.
The case is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which covers judicial districts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and is considered one of the most conservative of the 13 U.S. courts of appeals. It's unclear, though, that the "unmoored" legal judgement by crackpot Texas Judge O'Connor, now supported by the unmoored Trump regime, will pass the smell test even with this court top- heavy with Republican appointees. Either way, it will be appealed to the Supreme Court, especially if the law is struck down. This is an issue that touches so many peoples' lives that it's almost inconceivable that the courts would be so mindless of the impact of scuttling health insurance for so many million Americans. But, there's already been one jackass judge who thought nothing of it, and we all know the Republican ethos: "Afflict the afflicted, comfort the comfortable."Obamacare saves senior citizens money on their Medicare coverage and prescription drugs. It lets many Americans obtain free birth control, mammograms and cholesterol tests. And it allows children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until they turn 26. (our emphasis)
Health care was a major issue for voters in the 2018 mid- terms, and Democrats running for President are making health care a major issue for 2020. If in the unlikely but possible event the ACA ("Obamacare") is struck down -- without a replacement! -- the Republicans will be handing Democrats a huge cudgel to beat them with, and rightly so.
UPDATE: Not standing for it --
Days before the election, Republicans aired ads pretending to defend health care.— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) March 26, 2019
Today, they have a new message: people don't deserve quality health care and insurance companies should discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.
We *will* fight tooth and nail. https://t.co/wD2crNucfa
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