President Trump leapt into the election-year fight over protections for people with pre-existing conditions Thursday, saying the GOP will defend them.
“All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don’t, they will after I speak to them,” he said on Twitter. “I am in total support.”
He then accused Democrats of trying to “destroy” Medicare, a riff on his claim that extending “Medicare to all” through a government-run, single payer health care system will upend the popular program for seniors, a key voting bloc.
Democrats are needling Republicans over pre-existing conditions ahead of Election Day, saying the GOP plans to repeal and replace Obamacare have watered down part of the 2010 law’s coverage mandates — potentially making robust more expensive as a result — or included language that would allow insurers to charge sicker people more than healthy ones.
The GOP is also wrestling with a state-driven lawsuit that says Congress decision to gut the “individual mandate” should invalidate the rest of the program, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended the lawsuit in an interview with Bloomberg, saying GOP candidates can handle the blowback and it’s “no secret” that congressional Republicans and the Trump administration would like to repeal Obamacare and protect sicker Americans in another way.
The Justice Department has refused to defend the law in federal court.
“I don’t fault the administration for trying to give us an opportunity to do this differently and to go in a different direction,” Mr. McConnell said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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