U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) joined health care activists today in spotlighting the Trump administration’s decision, during the pandemic, to press forward with trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, instead of working with Democrats to improve the national health care law.
“As the Senate today tries to cram through a Supreme Court nominee who will threaten to overturn health care for tens of millions of Americans, we are sitting here and coming together today with real solutions, with real people, to move our country forward,” said Crow on a Zoom call organized by Protect Our Care, a national progressive advocacy group.
Crow called the ACA “game-changing” for tens of millions of Americans, including 20 million Americans who have health insurance today but did not prior to the passage of the ACA, “people who can now get health care who couldn’t get it because of pre-existing conditions,” and “kids who can now stay on their parents’ health care.” Crow also cited the importance of the ACA’s “elimination of the lifetime caps [on insurance payments to policy holders] that would have been devastating for so many families.”
Crow acknowledged that 10% of Americans still don’t have health insurance and 20% of Americans don’t have adequate coverage.
But Republicans, he said, are refusing to join him and other Democrats to “improve upon instead of throwing out the Affordable Care Act.”
“Instead of joining with me to pass my Freedom from Price Gouging Act, which would lower the cost of prescription drugs or my bill to help improve upon instead of throwing out the Affordable Care Act, what are Republicans and Donald Trump doing?” asked Crow. “They are trying to overturn the ACA in court.”
“Make no mistake, when Donald Trump says he wants to improve and have a better system to protect people with pre-existing conditions, sitting here today they are in court to overturn those protections. The proof is in what you do not what you say.”
Trump has said he wants to replace the ACA with a better health care law, but he and fellow Republicans have yet to offer a specific plan that would do so.
During a news conference in March, for example, Trump was asked about the lawsuit.
Unidentified Journalist: Thank you, sir. Your administration is backing a lawsuit to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. Given that people are losing their jobs now and need health care more than ever, would you consider rethinking your position on that?
President Trump: Well, that’s a lawsuit coming out of Texas, again, that was headed up by Texas. And what we want to do is get rid of the bad health care, and put in a great health care. And we will always — I will say this, I can make this commitment to you — the Republican Party is fully backing pre-existing conditions. Now, if we could get a great health care plan, which we’d need the House to do, but if we can get a great health care plan, we will only do it if we can get pre-existing conditions totally backed. So, we’re backing pre-existing. But we’d like to get rid of bad health care. Now, we are running the bad health care much better than it was ever run, and we’re making it better, but it could be much better than it is. And so, what we want to do is terminate it, have a great health care, but we will only do it with pre-existing. We will back pre-existing conditions. Okay, thank you all very much!
Crow’s appearance on Protect Our Care’s Zoom event was part of a nationwide “Your Health, Your Vote” virtual bus tour to “call for an end to the GOP’s continued war on Americans’ health care,” according to a Protect Our Care news release, which stated that “Americans’ health care is on the ballot” in November.
