Washington, DC — Donald Trump is officially launching his reelection campaign today, but his relentless years-long campaign to sabotage America’s health care and ongoing lawsuit to strip health care away from millions of Americans looms large over his announcement. Poll after poll shows that health care is the top issue on voters’ minds headed into 2020 and Trump’s reckless and ongoing attacks on Americans health care have not been forgotten as millions face higher costs and are at greater risk of losing their coverage as a result. In response to Trump’s announcement today, Protect Our Care executive director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:
“Trump’s reelection bid is already marred by his relentless war on America’s health care, including his ongoing lawsuit to strip protections from Americans with pre-existing conditions, rip coverage from millions more and throw our whole health care system into chaos. Under Trump’s watch, prescription drug prices have skyrocketed while insurance and drug companies rake in record profits, and his repeated and ongoing attacks on our health care have put 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions like asthma, cancer or diabetes at risk of losing their protections. Trump’s destructive health care agenda will dominate this campaign and voters who are sick and tired of these relentless attacks on their health care will make clear that his harmful sabotage agenda won’t last another four years.”
BACKGROUND:
Millions of Americans Have Lost Their Health Care Under Trump’s Tenure
A CDC survey found that 1.1 million more Americans lost health insurance coverage in 2018.
Under the Trump administration, the number of uninsured children grew for the first time in nearly a decade. After a decade of steady decreases in the number of uninsured children, in 2017 the number of uninsured children increased from 3.6 million to 3.9 million.
Trump’s Lawsuit To Destroy The ACA Would Strip Coverage From Millions More Americans
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice overrode the advice of legal experts and signed on to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general that would overturn the entire Affordable Care Act, stripping coverage from millions. Trump himself has stated that he believes the ACA will be “terminated” through the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the law.
If the Affordable Care Act is struck down:
- GONE: Protections for 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. The uninsured rate will increase by 65 percent.
- GONE: Medicaid expansion, which covers 17 million people.
- GONE: Nearly 12 million seniors will have to pay more for prescription drugs because the Medicare ‘donut hole’ will be reopened.
- GONE: 2.3 million adult children will no longer be able to stay on their parents’ insurance.
- GONE: Insurance companies will be able to charge women 50 percent more than men.
- GONE: Financial assistance that helps 9 million people purchase health care in the marketplace.
- GONE: Key support for rural hospitals. As Americans lose coverage, already struggling hospitals will be hit even harder as their costs increase.
- GONE: Ban on insurance companies having lifetime caps on coverage.
- GONE: Requirements that insurance companies cover prescription drugs and maternity care
Trump Enthusiastically Supports Every Attempt To Repeal The ACA
In May 2017, House Republicans passed a health care repeal bill that would cause 23 million people to lose coverage and gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions. It would have imposed an age tax and allowed insurers to charge people over 50 five times more for coverage and ended Medicaid as we know it, putting the care of seniors, children and people with disabilities in jeopardy. Donald Trump loved this bill so much that he threw a party on the White House lawn to celebrate its passage.
Throughout the summer of 2017, Trump cheered Senate Republicans monthslong failed attempt to pass BCRA, Skinny Repeal and Graham-Cassidy, all repeal bills that would have caused millions of Americans to lose their health coverage and raised premiums by double digits for millions more. Two years later, Trump is still complaining that John McCain thwarted his attempt to repeal the ACA and promising to keep trying again to repeal the ACA and strip coverage from millions of Americans.