In a time of COVID-19, ‘Obamacare’ still part of the action

COVID-19 could have stamped a person “uninsurable” if t for Affordable Care Act. ban on insurers using preexisting conditions to deny cover is a key part of Obama-era law that Trump ministration still seeks to overturn.

Without law, people who recovered from COVID-19 and tried to purchase an individual health insurance policy could be turned down, charged higher premiums or have follow-up care excluded from cover. Those considered vulnerable because of conditions such as respiratory problems or early-st diabetes would have run into a wall of insurer suspicion.

Yet as defenders of ACA submit written arguments to Supreme Court next week countering latest challenge to its existence, Trump ministration remains amant that former President Barack Obama’s health law, kwn as “Obamacare,” must go.

“A global pandemic does t change what Americans kw: Obamacare has been an unlawful failure and furr illustrates need to focus on patient care,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

Deere asserted that law limits patient choice, has premiums that are too expensive and restricts patients with high-risk conditions from going to doctors and hospitals y need. Trump has said he would protect people with preexisting conditions, as have or Republicans, but he hasn’t spelled out a plan.

Some GOP lawmakers in contested races this fall are unnerved by prospect of Trump ministration lawyers asking Supreme Court during coronavirus outbreak to toss out a law that provides cover to at least 20 million Americans.

“ ACA remains law of land, and it is Department of Justice’s duty to defend it,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “That is especially true during current public health crisis our country is facing due to COVID-19.”

She is among those urging ministration t to get rid of law but inste make broer use of it to cover uninsured people during pandemic. Collins is considered among most endangered incumbents as Republicans try to keep ir Senate majority.

It’s unclear wher Supreme Court will hear oral arguments before vember election. A group of GOP-led states contends that because Congress repealed an ACA tax penalty, law’s requirement for individuals to carry health insurance is unconstitutional. If insurance mandate is unconstitutional, ir argument goes, n rest of law must collapse like a house of cards.

ministration agrees, but has also suggested that federal judges could decide to keep some parts of law. Supreme Court took case after a federal appeals court in New Orleans said ACA’s insurance mandate is unconstitutional, but did t rule on rest of law.

From nearly 12 million people to 35 million could lose ir workplace cover due to layoffs in coronavirus shutdown, according to an estimate by consulting firm Health Manment Associates. y have more options because of Obama-era law.

y are entitled to a special sign-up opportunity for cover through HealthCare.gov or ir state insurance market, and may qualify for financial assistance with premiums and or costs. y cant be asked about health problems. In states that expanded Medicaid, some may qualify for that program, usually at little or cost.

Before law, people who lost ir jobs and wanted to keep ir employer health insurance could do so under a law kwn as COBRA. It’s still on books, but it requires m to pay full premium, plus an ministrative fee. That’s often cost-prohibitive.

Karen Pollitz of npartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said people seeking an individual health insurance policy “would have been very much at risk in today’s pandemic” were it t for health law.

“ conditions associated with a more complicated case of COVID-19 would have been especially rioactive,” she said.

For Republicans, Supreme Court case “has to be ultimate in ‘be careful you don’t get what you wish for,’ ” said health industry consultant Robert Laszewski.

Part of reason Trump failed to repeal and replace law in 2017 was that Republicans didn’t have a plan y could agree on, he said.

“Before COVID, if y won suit, n what?” asked Laszewski. “And w with COVID ... in face of a major medical crisis, and depression-level unemployment, and people losing ir health insurance? Yikes!”

Last week U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some 30 health groups called on Congress to help maintain health insurance cover during ecomic shutdown caused by pandemic. y urged a bro approach that includes subsidies for COBRA, opening up ACA to more people and allowing those with tax-sheltered health accounts to use that money for premiums.

But White House is resisting anything that includes “Obamacare.” Inste ministration is using a health system relief fund created by Congress to reimburse hospitals for treating uninsured patients with COVID-19.

That “is way less than equate,” said Richard Pollack, president of American Hospital Association. “What we need to do is provide cover in a more comprehensive way for people.”