Today's Talker: The administration's latest blow to health care

Tuesday, March 26

The administration's latest blow to health care

'This is yet another effort on behalf of the Trump-Pence administration to undermine access to health care in this country,' says Dr. Leana Wen.

The Justice Department said in a letter on Monday that the Trump administration now agrees with U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor that all of the Affordable Care Act must be eliminated.

Lives are on the line

By Leana Wen

The Justice Department of Justice announced on Monday its support of a federal district court ruling that would strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, leaving more than 20 million people without health insurance.

I've practiced medicine before and after the ACA, and I have seen the profound impact it has had on the health and well-being of patients. In the emergency room before the ACA, I treated a young woman who died from cardiac arrest because she couldn't afford treatment for the heart condition with which she was born.

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At Planned Parenthood, we treat thousands of patients who have never before been able to access cancer screenings, HIV tests, or treatment for diabetes and other chronic conditions. Nearly 63 million people have gained access to preventive services such as no-cost birth control, well-woman visits, domestic violence screenings, and sexually transmitted disease and HIV screenings thanks to the ACA.

Striking down the ACA will affect the most vulnerable, including women, children, seniors, people with low incomes and individuals with disabilities. How will pregnant women afford the necessary prenatal and maternity care, currently considered an essential benefit under the ACA, if they lose coverage? At a time when the maternal mortality rate in the United States is worse than it was in the 1990s, it is unconscionable that we would further limit access to this care.

The ACA guarantees health coverage for young people under 26 on their parents' insurance; now they could be disenrolled and forced to forgo health care altogether. Repealing the ACA means that health conditions insurers that had considered pre-existing conditions like pregnancy, hypertension, asthma and migraines will no longer be covered. Americans will once again be priced out of the ability to care for their basic health needs.

We must also call out the destruction this would place on the nation's public health priorities. President Donald Trump has claimed dedication to addressing the opioid epidemic and ending HIV/AIDS transmission. But if critical health systems are dismantled and patients lose health insurance, how will people afford treatment for opioid use disorder and prevention services for HIV, not to mention prevention and care for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, chlamydia or even the flu?

This is yet another effort on behalf of the Trump-Pence administration to undermine access to health care in this country. Gutting the ACA will harm millions of families and roll back gains in public health. Politicians have tried to sabotage the ACA before. The American people organized, mobilized and stopped them in their tracks. We must do this again, because our patients' lives are on the line.

Leana Wen is a physician and the president of Planned Parenthood. You can follow her on Twitter: @DrLeanaWen.

Obamacare trashed

Rick McKee/The Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle/PoliticalCartoons.com

What others are saying

The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, editorial : "That means the country will go back to a health care system similar to what we had, with no individual exchanges, with Medicaid expansion threatened, and with millions of Americans losing health coverage. Congress might be able to save some pieces of the Affordable Care Act, such as coverage of pre-existing conditions, but that too would be a long shot."

Peter Suderman, Reason.com : "By all appearances, the Trump administration is taking a political position for political purposes, ignoring the strongest legal arguments in the process. It is a selective approach to enforcing the law, in which the executive branch has simply declined to defend a statute it doesn't like that was passed under a rival administration. That decision could have significant implications for future administrations from either party, and they would not be good: Administrations should not be in the business of picking and choosing which laws to enforce or defend."

Ian Millhiser, ThinkProgress : "As a general rule, the Justice Department has a duty to defend any federal statute challenged in court, regardless of whether the incumbent administration agrees with that statute. The Justice Department will disregard this duty in rare cases, such as when no reasonable arguments can be made in favor of a law. But, in this case, no reasonable argument can be made in favor of U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor's position."

What our readers are saying

Yes, let's bring back denial of insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, let more people die uninsured or forced to file bankruptcy because of medical bills. Let's also not let students stay on their parents' plan, make them go without health insurance, have everyone go back to jamming up emergency rooms because they couldn't afford to go to a doctor and now their problem is an emergency. Yes, Obamacare has been just terrible! If your current insurance isn't affordable, blame President Barack Obama, not the greedy insurance companies.

— Kelly A. Jensen

I can't afford Obamacare, and yet I was penalized by having to pay a fine. Only a fool would think that's fair. Obama was ruling as a dictator.

— Phyllis Virattanajun

And replace the Affordable Care Act with what? The Trump administration has yet to announce a solution. Instead of coming together with Democrats to find a solution, the Trump administration is just going to leave millions with no coverage? Wish I could say I was surprised.

— Lizz Hancock

The Trump administration is energized by the failed overreach of the leftists during the Obama administration. Trump and Republicans are ready to clean house and continue to Make America Great Again!

— Noura Khubzi

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