As more and more Americans worry about affordable health coverage, the Republican Administration continues its attempts to end the Affordable Care Act. The drive to end the ACA in the midst of a pandemic threatens to inject more chaos into a failed pandemic response. Yet, once again, the Trump administration continues to push the Supreme Court to invalidate the entire ACA.

Some of the provisions of the ACA include: children can stay on their parent’s health care plan until age 26; companies cannot charge women more than men; and no one who is sick or has a medical condition can be denied insurance.

Why do conservatives oppose this law? They say it imposes unnecessary costs and regulations on business, describing it as a job killer. However, since the implementation of the ACA, health care jobs have risen by 9%. Conservatives baulk at the rule requiring most companies to cover birth control for free. The Trump administration tried enacting guidelines for organizations to opt out on moral grounds, but two federal judges blocked the move.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the ACA constitutional. Despite having a majority on Capitol Hill, a Republican repeal bid failed in 2018.

House Democrats, in a filing to the Supreme Court in May, said the pandemic showcased why justices should preserve the law: “… the nation’s current public-health emergency has made it impossible to deny that broad access to affordable health care is not just a life-or-death matter for millions of Americans, but an indispensable precondition to the social intercourse on which our security, welfare and liberty ultimately depend,” their brief read.

Why would legislators vote to remove health coverage from poor people? Taxpayers can save money by allowing people to have access to health care. We pay higher fees when they get sick and have to use the emergency room as a source of temporary care. Pay now a lower amount or pay later an amount that is tripled.

What happened to Trump’s plan of “best health care ever on day one?” Just further proof of the lies Trump spun to all who elected him.

Democratic leaders have acknowledged Obamacare is not perfect and have requested Republicans to work with them to fix its flaws. Maybe the Republicans should give this some consideration, especially now during the worst pandemic in 100 years. Just sayin’. 

Nancy Spillane
Oak Creek