Despite relentless attacks on health care, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-05) was elected Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Throughout her time in Congress, Rep. McMorris Rodgers has voted time and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the protections it provides to 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. She also supports the Trump administration’s lawsuit to completely dismantle the health care law which, if successful, would rip coverage away from more than 20 million Americans and throw the entire health care system into chaos — all in the middle of an ever worsening pandemic. Rep. McMorris Rodgers has done nothing to address skyrocketing drug prices and has voted to slash funding for Medicare and Medicaid.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers Supports Repealing The ACA And Its Protections For 135 Million Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions
Cathy McMorris Rodgers has made it her “mission” to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including at least four votes for a total repeal of the Affordable Care Act with no replacement since 2011.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers: “We Are On A Mission To Repeal And Replace Obamacare.” “Good morning, everyone. We are on a mission. We are on a mission to repeal and replace Obamacare. It’s a rescue mission to save families and patients all across this country.” [Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican Leadership Press Conference, 3/8/17]
2011: McMorris Rodgers Voted For A Total Repeal Of The ACA. McMorris Rodgers voted for The “Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act” would have repealed all of the Affordable Care Act. [HR 2, Roll Call Vote #14, 1/19/11]
2011: McMorris Rodgers Voted To Repeal And Defund The ACA. McMorris Rodgers voted for the fiscal 2012 budget that would have repealed and defunded the Affordable Care Act. [HCR 34, Roll Call Vote #277, 4/15/11]
2013: McMorris Rodgers Voted For A Total Repeal Of The ACA. McMorris Rodgers voted for HR 45, an act “to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” [HR 45, Roll Call Vote #154, 5/16/13]
2015: McMorris Rodgers Voted For A Total Repeal Of The ACA. McMorris Rodgers voted for HR 596, an act “to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” The bill also ordered House committees to develop a replacement that would “provide people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable health coverage,” but provided no specifics. [HR 596, Roll Call Vote #58, 2/3/15]
2017: McMorris Rodgers Voted For AHCA. McMorris Rodgers voted for passage of the American Health Care Act. [HR 1628, Roll Call Vote #256, 5/4/17]
McMorris Rodgers Claimed To Oppose The Trump Administration Lawsuit That Would Rip Coverage Away From More Than 20 Million Americans, But Voted Multiple Times To Allow It To Proceed
2018: McMorris Rodgers Claimed To Oppose The Trump DOJ’s Decision Not To Defend The Affordable Care Act. “Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers criticized the Justice Department’s decision not to defend portions of the Affordable Care Act in court, calling it ‘an attack on pre-existing conditions protections.’ Her announcement on Wednesday followed criticism from her election opponent, Democrat Lisa Brown, that McMorris Rodgers isn’t doing enough to protect patients with pre-existing conditions in the aftermath of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to stop defending the Affordable Care Act against a lawsuit. Republican leaders of 20 states are seeking to invalidate the nation’s health care law.” [Spokane Spokesman-Review, 6/13/18]
McMorris twice opposed blocking the Trump Department of Justice from undermining the ACA McMorris Rodgers voted against Lauren Underwood’s 2019 and 2020 legislation to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from spending federal funds on litigation that undermines the Affordable Care Act, including Texas v. United States.
McMorris Rodgers opposed allowing the House to intervene against the Texas lawsuit. McMorris Rodgers voted against a House rules resolution that allowed Congress to intervene against the Texas v. U.S. lawsuit. The resolution affirms the House Counsel’s authorization to intervene as a party in the lawsuit, asserting the House of Representative’s authority to defend laws it has passed and enacted into law.
McMorris Rodgers Voted For The Tax Bill Which Forms The Basis For The Trump-Republican Lawsuit. McMorris enthusiastically supported the Republican tax bill, which repealed a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that required most people to have health coverage and which is the basis of the Trump-Republican lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
If the Texas lawsuit is successful:
- 20 million Americans could lose coverage. According to the Urban Institute, 19.9 million people could lose coverage by repealing the Affordable Care Act, meaning the number of uninsured Americans would increase from 30.4 million to 50.3 million, representing a leading to a 65 percent increase in the uninsured rate.
- 2.3 million young adults with their parents’ coverage could lose care. Because of the Affordable Care Act, millions of young adults are able to stay on their parents’ care until age 26.
- Americans would lose important federal health care funding — an estimated reduction of $135 billion in the first year. States would lose important federal health care funding — an estimated reduction of $135 billion in the first year. The Urban Institute estimates that a full repeal of the ACA would reduce federal spending on Medicaid/CHIP care and Marketplace subsidies by $135 billion, or 34.6 percent in the first year.
- Insurance companies would be put back in charge, ending protections for the 135 million Americans with a pre-existing condition. 135 million Americans have a pre-existing condition, more than 17 million children, 68 million women, and 32 million people aged 55-64.
McMorris Rodgers Has Voted To Slash Medicare And Medicaid
McMorris Rodgers Voted To Cut Medicare By $473 Billion. McMorris Rodgers voted for the FY 2018 budget resolution, which included $473 billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years. [H Con Res 71, Vote #557, 10/5/17; Vox, 10/26/17]
McMorris Rodgers Voted To Slash $1.3 Trillion From Medicaid. McMorris Rodgers voted for the FY 2018 budget resolution, which cut funding for non-Medicare health programs, most notably Medicaid, by 1.3 trillion, a 20 percent cut over the course of 10 years, increasing to a 29.3 percent cut by 2027. [H Con Res 71, Vote #557, 10/5/17; Vox, 10/26/17]
McMorris Rodgers’ Vote For AHCA Cut $880 Billion From Medicaid. McMorris Rodgers voted for AHCA, which included $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. [HR 1628, Roll Call Vote #256, 5/4/17]
- Vox Called AHCA A “Sneaky” Reversal Of The Medicaid Expansion. “Medicaid, a government program that simply compensates health care providers at stingy rates, is much cheaper than private insurance. So the ACA’s authors chose to expand it to cover all families with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line, rather than shelling out the money it would have cost to have the government pay for them to buy private insurance. The AHCA reverses this expansion. But to avoid the criticism that the law throws poor children off their health insurance, it reverses it in a somewhat sneaky way. Rather than taking Medicaid away from families who have it, it simply caps new enrollments in Medicaid so no new poor families can sign up. But the way this cap works, you can’t get back on Medicaid if you go off of it. So a poor family that gets a raise and becomes non-poor for a year will lose access to Medicaid permanently.” [Vox, 5/9/17]
McMorris Rodgers Has Accepted Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Pharma Contributions, Voted Against Lowering Drug Prices For Millions Of Americans
McMorris Rodgers Voted Against Historic Legislation To Lower Prescription Drug Prices. McMorris Rodgers voted against the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), historic legislation to drastically reduce Americans’ prescription drug prices by up to 55% and save taxpayers nearly $500 billion over the next 10 years. H.R. 3 included the most comprehensive drug pricing reform in American history and the largest expansion to Medicare’s vision, dental and hearing benefits in decades. [HR 3, Roll Call Vote #682, 12/12/19]
McMorris Has Received Over $350,000 In Contributions From Big Pharma During Her Career. Since 2007, Cathay McMorris Rodgers has received $355,250 in contributions from pharmaceutical companies. [Kaiser Health News, 5/22/20]