Suit threatens health care for 2 million Floridians
Supreme Court could strike down Obamacare
TALLAHASSEE — No matter who wins the presidential election, health care coverage for nearly 2 million Floridians willbein jeopardy if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act.
That’s how many state residents bought health plans through the federal exchanges, most of whom receive federal subsidies they’d in danger of losing if the ACA were eliminated. The increased cost could price them out of the coverage.
“If the law is overturned, all that help will go away, [and] most likely people will no longer be able to afford their coverage,” said Anne Swer lick, senior policy analyst and attorney with the Florida Policy Institute, a progressive think tank based in Orlando.
And other provisions protecting those with pre-existing conditions and young adults who now can stay on their parents’ policies would disappear, affecting potentially millions more.
In Central Florida,
nearly 262,000 people are on the exchanges, including 152,794 in Orange County alone, the third-most in the state behind Miami-Dade (457,666) and Broward (258,954), according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Oral arguments in the lawsuit are set for Nov. 10, a week after Election Day. It will be one of the first cases heard by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the conservative jurist confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Monday by a 52-48 vote, with no Democrats voting in favor. She replaces liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September, increasing the chances the law will be eliminated.
The case was brought by Texas and backed by the Trump administration and 18 other states, including Florida, but GOP candidates up and down the ballot, starting with President Trump, are vowing to ensure protections for people with pre-existing conditions, one of the law’s key features.
“We won’t do anything — and no plan — unless we have pre-existing conditions covered,” Trump said in an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday.
Yet Trump wants the ACA, passed in 2010 and signed into law by President Obama and often known as Obamacare, to be eliminated, even though he doesn’t have a plan to replace it. Republicans failed to pass a replacement measure in 2017, but even that would have eroded protections for pre-existing conditions, critics contended.
There are between 61 million and 133 million people under 65 in the U.S. with pre-existing conditions, depending on how the termis applied, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report from Jan. 5, 2017, in the waning days of the Obama administration.
One estimate from the left-leaning Center for American Progress holds that 8.4 million Floridians have pre-existing conditions that would no longer be protected if the ACA were struck down.
Republicans in the Florida Legislature point to SB 322 passed in 2019, to show they’ve acted in case Obamacare is removed.
The state law requires insurers to offer coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions but doesn’t place a cap on prices. The ACA prohibits insurers from hiking prices for those with pre-existing conditions.
Swerlick said without that protection, many more Floridians won’t be able to afford health insurance.
“The problem is, unlike what exists today, there are no restrictions on how much insurers could charge people with pre-existing conditions, and that’s how people get excluded,” Swerlick said. “That’s a critical missing piece from what exists in state law.”
Florida’s new law
Most Democrats voted against SB 322, saying it would gut the AC A’ s protections, but Republicans are using the vote to claim they are opposed to pre-existing condition protections altogether this election season. It’s a main feature of mailers from the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee backing Marva Preston, a GOP Senate candidate in a Tallahassee district, against Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee.
Democrats in Central Florida races, too, are bashing Republicans for claiming to support protections for pre-existing conditions while supporting lawsuits to remove them.
Patricia Sigman, the Democrat running for Senate District 9, which covers Seminole County and part of Volusia, against former state Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, has repeatedly slammed him over the issue.
“Make no mistake about it, access to quality, affordable health care is on the ballot from the top of the ticket down to the Florida Legislature,” Sigman said in a released statement. “Unlike my opponent, who voted to strip people with pre-existing conditions of their health care and against expanding Medicaid, I believe access to health care is a right, not a privilege.”
Florida Democrats, though, would lose one of their main campaign platforms– Medicaid expansion - if the law is struck down. About 800,000 Floridians could be covered under expanded Medic aid coverage, but Republicans in the House thwarted attempts in 2015 by Senate Republicans and Democrats to expand the program, which was allowed under Obamacare with the federal government picking up most of the tab.
Other popular aspects of the law could be struck down as well, such as the option to keep offspring up to age 26 on a family plan.
Affecting everyone
Those with pre-existing conditions and those who bought insurance through federal exchanges would be affected the most, but Swerlick said there would be ripple effects throughout the insurance market that affect everyone.
An increase in uninsured people would lead to a rise in uncompensated care, pushing premiums up for those with coverage, she said.
“It’s truly not hyperbolic to say this would have disastrous consequences for Florida, ”Swerlicks aid.
Texas and those challenging the law claim the ACA’s “individual mandate ,” or the fee imposed on those who don’t get health coverage is unconstitutional. The GOP Congress placed the fee at zero in 2017 but did not fully eliminate the underlying fine. They also claim the individual mandate provision can’t be struck down on its own but that all of thelaw must be eliminated.
Florida joined the lawsuit under Attorney General Pam Bondi, and her successor, Ashley Moody, has continued the state’s involvement. About three dozen liberal groups wrote to Moody on Monday asking her to withdraw from the case.
“Our office is party to this litigation and it would not be appropriate to discuss the ongoing proceedings,” Moody spokeswoman Lauren Cassedy wrote in an email, adding that Moody “has consistently supported the protection of those with pre-existing conditions.”