Obamacare: Trump demands courts erase Affordable Care Act in controversial election move
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have unveiled major legislation to rescue the Affordable Care Act as Donald Trump’s White House administration seeks to eliminate the bill in its entirety.
The move follows new filings in a case pending before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals titled Texas v the United States, in which a trial court judge previously sided with the administration in voiding the law during a December ruling.
The White House has now taken their calls to crush the legislation — commonly referred to as Obamacare — a step further, saying every piece of the bill should be removed from law, from protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, to subsidies for a range of Americans seeking insurance.
The Democrat bill being unveiled on Tuesday would make more middle-class people eligible for subsidised health insurance, while increasing aid for those with lower incomes who already qualify. And it would fix a longstanding affordability problem for some consumers, known as the “family glitch.”
It also would block Mr Trump’s administration from loosening Obamacare rules through waivers that allow states to undermine protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions or to scale back so-called “essential” benefits like coverage for mental health and addiction treatment.
The bill will get a vote in the House, but as a package it has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. However, some elements have bipartisan support and may make it into law.
Mr Trump was elected into office promising to “repeal and replace” his predecessor’s health law but was unable to do so, even with a Congress fully under Republican control.
The president remains committed to overturning Obamacare, but with the House in Democratic hands his last hope seems to be a court challenge to the law by Texas and other Republican-led states, now before a federal appeals panel.
The White House’s efforts to completely revoke the health care bill could prove risky in the upcoming 2020 elections. Scrapping the law was a longtime campaign vow that helped sail Mr Trump to victory in 2016, although Obamacare has only grown more popular in the years since. Millions of people continue to benefit from the bill's taxpayer-subsidized private insurance plans, but enrolment is slowly declining and experts fear stagnation.
His administration said in its most recent appellate court filing in the case that the entire law should be struck down as unconstitutional, a bolder position than it previously held. It’s rare for the Justice Department to decline to defend a federal law.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
