Trump administration asks Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/25/trump-supreme-court-overturn-obamacare-340851


By SUSANNAH LUTHI
06/25/2020 10:59 PM EDT


The Trump administration on Thursday night urged the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare, pushing forward with its attack on the health care law as millions of newly jobless Americans may come to depend on its coverage.

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Trump has insisted that his predecessor's signature legislative achievement must be overturned, despite the public health emergency. Shortly after Covid-19 emerged, Trump refused to reopen the law's health insurance marketplaces to make it easier for uninsured people to get coverage, despite pleas from Democrats and some moderate Republicans.

"What we want to do is terminate it and give health care," Trump said in the Oval Office last month when he announced his administration would continue battling Obamacare in court. "We'll have great health care, including preexisting conditions."

However, Republicans haven't agreed on a replacement since the repeal effort fell short, and previous GOP plans would have weakened robust Obamacare protections barring insurers from charging more or denying coverage based on a patient's medical history.

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The Trump-backed lawsuit, brought by a group of Republican-led states, puts at risk health insurance for more than 20 million people covered by Obamacare, as well as insurance protections for people with preexisting medical conditions. Biden during a Thursday campaign event attacked Trump for seeking to upend those protections when a growing number of coronavirus survivors are developing potentially long-term health complications.

"They would live their lives caught in a vise between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from American families," Biden said.

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The Supreme Court, which upheld the health care law in the two previous major challenges, will hear the lawsuit this fall but is unlikely to issue a decision before the Nov. 3 election.

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