On Monday, Trump’s administration told the federal appeals court that they needed to abolish the Affordable Care Act, which will undoubtedly lead to a battle between President Trump and the 2020 Democratic candidates that are fighting for a “Medicare for All” system.
In agreement with a ruling made by a federal judge from Texas last year, attorneys from the Justice Department filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans asking them to abolish the entire Affordable Care Act.
According to the letter, “The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed. Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule.”
Last year, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor made the ruling that Obamacare isn’t constitutional because of the Republican tax reform, which eliminated the penalty for not having health insurance. Initially, the administration insisted that only certain parts of the law should be annulled, which would include protections for people who have pre-existing conditions, but the latest filing made the decision to completely overturn the law as a whole.
According to the filing, the government will file a brief in order to support the Texas-led alliance of states that are attempting to overturn the health care law. According to the Washington Post, this is providing that “the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed.”
“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” said Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department.
If the government succeeds in overturning the health care law, millions of citizens could potentially lose their health insurance, causing a major disruption within the industry because there wouldn’t be a system to replace it.
Apparently, over 11 million people signed up for Obamacare in 2019, which is just a little less than the number of people who signed up in 2018. However, the number of new members dropped by more than 500,000, which is a bit disappointing for those that back Obamacare.
Trump’s move to abolish the Affordable Care Act will surely cause a bit of unrest between the Trump administration and Democratic candidates running for president, such as Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, who are doing everything they can to get rid of private insurance companies in an effort to create a single-payer system.
In the meantime, Trump’s effort to get rid of the Affordable Care Act could actually prove the Congressional Democrats right, who previously warned that the Republicans were going to try to repeal the law, which would include protecting those who have pre-existing conditions.
