Dems: Health care at stake

Senators rally opposition to Supreme Court pick

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal are joining fellow Senate Democrats in focusing on Trump administration threats to the Affordable Care Act as a lead argument against confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

At a news conference Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, Murphy said he “has no doubt” Kavanaugh will do his utmost to dismantle the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — and its guarantee for coverage for those with pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and a host of other chronic conditions.

Murphy, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that oversees health care, pointed to the Kavanaugh nomination as one more arrow in President Trump’s quiver — all aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

“President Trump wakes up every single day trying to think about new and innovative ways that he could destroy America’s health care,” Murphy said.

“That certainly is going to be a major thrust of our opposition, that he would turn back the clock on American health care and undercut the pillars of ACA,” Blumenthal said.

Pre-existing conditions

The non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation did a state-by-state analysis and concluded about 522,000 in Connecticut have some kind of pre-existing condition that, absent the ACA’s protection, might subject them to loss of insurance or only unaffordable options.

Kaiser Family Foundation has conducted polls on Obamacare and its specific features such as coverage of pre-existing conditions. Overall support for the ACA has hovered in the 50 percent range for the past year.

But 65 percent of respondents said continuing coverage for pre-existing conditions is “very important” to their choices in the midterm election, including 51 percent of Republicans, KFF found.

Roe v. Wade

The prospect of Kavanaugh providing the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade also is a galvanizing argument for Connecticut Democrats and their Senate colleagues. A Quinnipiac University poll last week found that 63 percent support retaining the 1973 precedent legalizing abortion nationwide, while 31 percent say it should be overturned.

As a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Court of Appeals here in Washington, Kavanaugh has not ruled on the merits of Roe v. Wade or the ACA.

But Kavanaugh did state if the court ruled that the government could compel individuals to buy health insurance, it could imprison them for failure to do so. And, he wrote, government could use the same logic to force individuals to buy retirement accounts, college savings accounts and life insurance.

“Those are extraordinary words,” Murphy said.

On abortion, Kavanaugh dissented last year in a case in which the appeals court majority held a 17-year-old immigrant in the country illegally who was in detention should be able to obtain an abortion. Kavanaugh argued the girl should be released to an adult sponsor before making a decision.

Both Blumenthal and Murphy point to Kavanaugh’s inclusion on Trump’s list of 25 prescreened conservatives — and the president’s statement that his choices would “automatically” vote to strike Roe v. Wade — as proof of the 53-year-old nominee’s intent.