President’s Rally Comes on the Heels of His Widely Panned Response to Coronavirus and News Today That the Supreme Court Will Hear His Lawsuit to Overturn the ACA
Washington, DC — While Americans grapple with the ongoing threat of the spread of coronavirus, President Trump chooses to hold yet another campaign rally tonight in Charlotte, North Carolina, his second in four days. Tonight’s rally also comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Trump-Republican lawsuit to overturn the ACA in its upcoming term. In response to the president’s deliberate choice to put politics over Americans’ health care and safety, Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:
“President Trump’s disastrous health care agenda, including his politicized response to the threat of coronavirus and ongoing lawsuit to overturn the ACA, continues to put Americans’ lives at risk. Instead of reassuring the American people that he is taking the threat of the coronavirus seriously or dropping his lawsuit that puts the health care of 20 million at risk, including over half a million North Carolinians, he calls coronavirus a ‘hoax’ and continues supporting the lawsuit. It’s clear the president has no interest in taking the threat of coronavirus seriously, as any other president wouldn’t play politics while the world grapples with a potential pandemic of this magnitude. President Trump’s lack of preparedness and his eagerness to take health care away from 20 million Americans not only spreads fear but threatens peoples’ health care at a time they’re worried about it the most.”
BACKGROUND:
Trump-Backed Texas Lawsuit Would Devastate North Carolinians
If Trump Gets His Way, 503,000 North Carolinians Would Lose Their Coverage
- 503,000 North Carolinians could lose coverage. According to the Urban Institute, 503,000 North Carolinians would lose coverage by repealing the Affordable Care Act, leading to a 43 percent increase in the uninsured rate.
- 70,000 North Carolina 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.
- 96,000 North Carolina children could lose their coverage. Almost three million children nationwide gained coverage thanks to the ACA. If the law is overturned, many of these children will lose their insurance.
- 79,600 North Carolina Latinos could lose coverage. The percentage of people gaining health insurance under the ACA was higher for Latinos than for any other racial or ethnic group in the country. According to a study from Families USA, 5.4 million Latinos nationwide would lose coverage if the lawsuit succeeds in overturning the ACA.
- North Carolinians would lose important federal health care funding — an estimated reduction of $4.6 billion in the first year. The Urban Institute estimates that a full repeal of the ACA would reduce federal spending on North Carolinians’ Medicaid/CHIP care and Marketplace subsidies by $4.6 billion.
For more information on the impact of the Texas lawsuit on North Carolina, click here.
President Donald Trump: Coronavirus Is The Democrats’ “New Hoax” “With your help we have exposed the far left’s corruption and defeated their sinister schemes and let’s see what happens in the coming months. Let’s watch. Let’s just watch. Very dishonest people. Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs, you say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’, ‘Oh, nothing, nothing.’ They have no clue, they don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa, they can’t even count. No, they can’t. They can count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since she got in. It’s all turning, they lost. It’s all turning, think of it, think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We have 15 people in this massive country and because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that.” [Donald Trump, Rally, North Charleston, SC, 2/28/20]
Business Insider: “Public Concern Is Rising That The U.S.’s Expensive Health Care System Could Create A Barrier Discouraging People From Seeking Life-Saving Care For COVID-19.” “Health officials, though, are warning that its spread in the US is ‘inevitable’ and urging Americans to prepare, holding out the possibility of school closings, workplace shutdowns, or the cancellation of large public gatherings. Yet public concern is rising that the US’s expensive healthcare system could create a barrier discouraging people from seeking life-saving care for COVID-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — and accelerate its spread around the country.” [Business Insider, 2/29/20]
- The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt Said “There’s An Important Link Between Broader Health Care Policies Like The Affordable Care Act And Responding To A Potential Public Health Emergency.” “‘There’s an important link between broader healthcare policies like the Affordable Care Act and responding to a potential public health emergency like this virus,’ Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Business Insider. Levitt added that providing people access to inexpensive healthcare is ‘key to both preventing the spread of a virus like this and getting people who are sick treated.'”
- John Cogan, Professor Of Health Insurance Law And Financial Regulation At The University Of Connecticut, Said That He Is Concerned About The Affordability Of A Potential Coronavirus Vaccine With The Threat Of Trump’s Lawsuit To Repeal The ACA And Other Efforts To Sabotage The Health Care Law. “Under the ACA, health insurers must cover federally-recommended vaccines at no cost for most people, according to John Cogan, a professor of health insurance law and financial regulation at the University of Connecticut…Cogan said he’s still concerned about whether a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable, given the Trump administration’s support of a lawsuit that would scrap Obamacare in its entirety. He noted that Trump has sought to weaken and dismantle the health law throughout his presidency— one way was introducing cheaper short-term insurance plans that don’t cover costly services like hospital care or protect people with pre-existing conditions.”