Trump Administration: Preexisting Conditions Protection is Now Unconstitutional

In a brief filed in a federal court in Texas, the department said a tax law signed last year by President Donald Trump that eliminated penalties for not having health insurance rendered the so-called individual mandate under Obamacare unconstitutional.

The Justice Department said that also nullifies two other major provisions of Obamacare linked to the individual mandate, including one barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

https://amp-businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.businessinsider.com/r-us-justice-department-says-obamacare-individual-mandate-unconstitutional-2018-6?amp_js_v=a1&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s

Two aspects of this development stick out. First, protection for those with Preexisting Conditions is overwhelmingly popular making this move politically questionable. Second, the administration's argument is that they only became unconstitutional after Trump signed the GOP tax bill which eliminated penalties for not having health insurance, thereby limiting the ability of the administration and the party to shift blame.

@mattbbpl: Your avatar is essentially what I'm becoming more like everyday.

I mean you wouldn't want to have your pre-existing conditions covered that you were born with if it was going to cost anything to anyone who had the intelligence to be born healthy. **** this administration.

This will be a giant mess for the foreseeable future, but I do believe dismantling the ACA just brings us closer to going single payer. Like the rest of the first world did 50 years ago.

I think it could be that we dismantle it and go decades without single payer, and all the work towards such a system will have to begin again as time will allow people to set back into the mindset that there is no better system than the one we have.

well looks like I am going to lose my health coverage dye to my pre existing condition that I was born with. **** trump seriously

The ironic thing is that it's the fatasses in the red states that voted for Trump who will be the hardest hit. They all have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart disease, etc

I guess losing their health coverage is what winning looks like. I wonder if all the lard went to their brains and gave them some kind of retardation that made them vote for Trump.

I don't think you can lose your health coverage if you already have it. I think they use pre-existing conditions to exclude new members on prior medical problems that they had before enrolling. I dont think they can suddenly stop covering you at this point. The issue would be if you ended up with a gap between plans going forward. It still sucks, but you may not be out of luck.

Yeah, get rid of the one good thing about the ACA... great job.

Well, truth be told, once they eliminated the individual mandate, that essentially made covering pre-existing conditions untenable. It's sad that they actually went out and attacked that specific part of it, though. Hopefully, this gets fixed in 2 years.

Maybe, but I don't think so. Costs keep going up, especially with pharmaceuticals, and that isn't changing anytime soon. Healthcare premiums will continue to rise, and there wont be any Obamacare to blame it on. At some point the number of uninsured diabetics and opioid addicts in red states will get too large to ignore. So far I have not seen any private sector solutions to these problems.

Unless this works out:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/technology/amazon-berkshire-hathaway-jpmorgan-health-care.html

Theoretically they could stop supporting the plan altogether regardless of who on it has pre-existing conditions, and just create a plan without coverage of pre-existing conditions.

They can and they will. Prior to Obamacare, insurers would drop people all the time because they didn't want to cover their conditions, pre-existing or otherwise.

The party of christian values strikes again. Born sick? Die. Born poor? Too bad, being poor is a choice.

They don't even necessarily need a single payer system, they need good regulations, which will never happen as long as the republican party is still a thing in the US.

6'1", blonde haired, blue eyed, mesomorph, alpha male checking in. What's a preexisting condition?

Lololol jk.

America: the place where healthcare for everyone is considered evil, and having guns everywhere is considered good.

Mesomorph? What is that, like a cousin of an xenomorph?

@mrbojangles25: A mesomorph has a naturally athletic body type.

Home of the V-taper baby!

https://www.britannica.com/science/mesomorph

This is a good thing.

@n64dd: How so?

@bigfootpart2 said:

The ironic thing is that it's the fatasses in the red states that voted for Trump who will be the hardest hit. They all have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart disease, etc

I guess losing their health coverage is what winning looks like. I wonder if all the lard went to their brains and gave them some kind of retardation that made them vote for Trump.

Lol exactly. But their I.Q level is so bad they won't even know how it affects them.

@needhealing said:

@bigfootpart2 said:

The ironic thing is that it's the fatasses in the red states that voted for Trump who will be the hardest hit. They all have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart disease, etc

I guess losing their health coverage is what winning looks like. I wonder if all the lard went to their brains and gave them some kind of retardation that made them vote for Trump.

Lol exactly. But their I.Q level is so bad they won't even know how it affects them.

Sad but true.

You are misrepresenting some facts here.

The administration did not say that this provision was unconstitutional, what Sessions said was that they would not defend against the 20 states which are suing on the basis of it being unconstitutional.

There is a huge difference, and since this is the states themselves, well I do not see a problem.

They're arguing that they will not defend it because it's unconstitutional.

Link

Link 2

But then in that case, wouldn't every health problem be a pre-existing condition?