Trump administration urges Supreme Court to end ACA

The Trump administration recently urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, pushing forward with its attack on the health care law as millions of newly jobless Americans might come to depend on its coverage, according to Politico.

The Justice Department, in a new legal brief, argues Obamacare in its entirety became invalid when the previous Republican-led Congress axed the unpopular individual mandate penalty for uninsured people.

The filing comes weeks after President Donald Trump confirmed his administration would continue to press for the ACA’s elimination, ignoring warnings from top aides about the risk of voter backlash in November.

“No further analysis is necessary; once the individual mandate and the guaranteed-issue and community-rating provisions are invalidated, the remainder of the ACA cannot survive,” the Justice Department stated.

Trump’s new legal brief offers fresh ammunition to Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, who believe their advantage on health care will help the party retake the White House and possibly the Senate this fall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to vote on legislation building on the ACA, timing the bill to draw a contrast with Trump’s legal attack on the law during the coronavirus emergency.

The Trump-backed lawsuit, brought by a group of Republican-led states, puts at risk health insurance for more than 20 million people, as well as insurance protections for people with preexisting medical conditions. Biden, during a 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.

Powerful health care industry groups have rallied to defend the law, which has largely boosted their profits, as they also try to fend off “Medicare for All” and other broader expansions of government-backed coverage.

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

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. Some Republicans fear the lawsuit could cost them at the ballot, given the party’s failure to agree on an Obamacare replacement.

House Democrats think the issue will go a long way in helping them expand their majority. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said health care tops the polling of voter concerns in the 42 swing districts the party’s trying to hold onto as well as 45 districts it’s trying to flip.

“We can tell you that health care is the number one issue in swing districts all over the country, and that makes us feel pretty good from a political perspective — not only that it’s the number one issue but that Republicans are on the losing end,” she told POLITICO.

The administration’s legal strategy has split top aides. Two prominent Cabinet members, Attorney General Bill Barr and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, opposed the administration’s decision to fully back the lawsuit. Barr last month unsuccessfully tried to convince the White House to soften its legal attack on Obamacare because of the pandemic.