The heartlessness of this administration's position, which offers no alternative to the ACA, borders on depravity. The ACA works. Granted, it's not perfect and hasn't been since Day One. Like every other health care plan in the world, the ACA needs to be regularly tweaked to respond to conditions on the ground. But undoing a healthcare program 10 years later, despite substantial public support for it, is the equivalent of using a stick of dynamite to smooth out the edges of a rough plank.
This is the biggest reduction in coverage in our history, according to the NY Times (7/13/20). Meanwhile, back in Washington, Trump's Justice Department filed a brief in the Supreme Court that asks the Court to wipe out the ACA, which would potentially result in:
- millions more being thrown out of the insurance market,
- pulling the rug out from under states that took the U.S. at its word and expanded Medicaid eligibility on the basis of a generous federal match, as well as
- the reversal of such popular policies as:
- coverage for children until age 26,
- protection against discrimination based upon preëxisting conditions,
- annual and lifetime caps on coverage, and
- rescissions triggered by the filing of claims.
