Leader Schumer Responds to Senator Cornyn Suggesting People Sign Up for ACA Coverage, Despite Vocally Supporting Lawsuit to Overturn the Law
On a press call with Protect Our Care this afternoon, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Republican Senator John Cornyn (TX) for the blatant hypocrisy he displayed when, during an interview this week, he encouraged people to sign up for ACA coverage despite voting repeatedly to repeal the ACA and failing to condemn the ongoing Texas lawsuit to overturn the law in court.
Senator Cornyn’s comments come as a new study out today revealed that roughly 27 million people have lost their health insurance due to the global pandemic. What’s particularly shameless about Cornyn’s remarks, is that he has propped up the ongoing lawsuit to repeal the ACA, which if successful, would likely prevent those who have lost their insurance from gaining access to coverage, on top of kicking an additional 20 million people off of their health care. Cornyn knows his stance on the ACA, and repeated actions to destroy the law, are deeply unpopular, but he isn’t fooling anyone by his new-found interest in people’s health care.
LISTEN: Leader Schumer calls out Senator Cornyn for health care hypocrisy
(7:44) Leader Schumer: “If you ever wanted to see the hypocrisy of the Republicans and how the coronavirus crisis has strengthened the need for health care, I wanted to give you a quote from John Cornyn, formerly the number two and still a member of the leadership team in the Republican Senate. He voted more than a dozen times to repeal the ACA. He’s one of the leaders in the Senate to dismantle it. Here’s what he said on Monday: ‘The good news’ – that’s his words – ‘is that people can sign up for President Barack Obama’s signature health care law if they’ve lost their jobs and need health insurance amid the coronavirus pandemic.’ Here’s his quote: ‘The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage, which covers about a 180 million Americans, that is a significant life event, which makes you then eligible to sign up for the ACA’…As you know, it has a sliding scale of subsidies up to 400%…So that’s an option for people.’”
“Can you imagine? One of the leading people who is trying to dismantle health care now confronted with the crisis of corona, saying ‘here’s good news, we have ACA.’ What hypocrisy. But it also shows you where the public is. John Cornyn is running for re-election I imagine, you know, he knows that his efforts to repeal health care are not even popular in red, red Texas. And he has to say this. If you ever wanted evidence that corona has strengthened people’s desire for health care despite what this Trump administration is trying to do, there it is.”