Murphy highlights GOP plan to sabotage ACA

WASHINGTON — As far as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is concerned, Republicans are responsible for the country’s deteriorating health care — not Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Murphy joined the health care advocacy group Protect Our Care Wednesday morning to release the “Summer of Sabotage” one year after the Senate struck down an effort to repeal the Obama-era healthcare bill.

While the health care bill still exists, Murphy said GOP lawmakers are still taking strides to undermine healthcare.

Murphy on Wednesday cited a lawsuit in Texas in which the state is challenging Obamacare’s requirement that health insurance companies cover those with pre-existing conditions.

“Trump couldn’t get what he wanted through the legislative process so he’s trying to destroy the American health care system as retribution,” Murphy, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that oversees health care, said.

The Connecticut lawmaker added that the “icing on the cake” is Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who Democrats believe poses a threat to Obamacare. The judge participated in decisions siding against the Affordable Care Act as a conservative-leaning judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

While Republicans did not immediately respond to the report, Trump has called “ObamaCare ... a broken mess” and tweeted “Piece by piece we will now begin the process of giving America the great HealthCare it deserves!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in talking about eliminating the tax penalty on working people who are uninsured that was a part of the plan, has said “Repealing Obamacare’s harmful individual mandate tax ... is a tax cut for low-income Americans.”

Experts said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services slashing funding for organizations that help people sign up for health insurance hits the status of the Affordable Care Act, creating barriers for people looking to sign up for Obamacare.

Connecticut residents weren’t affected very much by the move: Rates among the state’s two health care companies increased by about 30 percent. Access Health CT enrolled 114,134 in Connecticut — a roughly 2 percent rise from last year. Signups for those just above the poverty line also increased to about 55,500.

In the nine-page report spearheaded by Protect Our Care, members outlined six Republican-led efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The report cited the Supreme Court nominee “who was hand-picked to tip the balance of the court” and new insurance plans “that can discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.”

Republicans have also used Congress’ federal tax bill to scrap the Obamacare mandate that everyone have health insurance or face a penalty, chipping away at the plan’s riskpool structure. The report also cited a decision to cut subsidies for insurance companies that insure high-cost customers.

Trump’s latest remark, Murphy said, was during a June trip to Nevada where the President said Congress didn’t need to repeal the Affordable Care Act because “we’ve essentially gutted it anyway.”

“These deliberate actions — and others — taken by President Trump and his Republican allies to sabotage the ACA have increased health care costs for millions of American families, will roll back key protections for people with pre-existing conditions, women and Americans over age 50 and reduce health insurance coverage,” the report read.

Brad Woodhouse, the executive director of Protect Our Care, said the organization published the report for lawmakers to understand that even though Congress won’t dismantle the bill, the president is aiming to do so on his own accord.

“Right now, the health and the lives of the American people are at stake in what’s happening in health care,” Woodhouse said. “It’s so vitally important that this doesn’t fly under the radar.”

Leslie Dach, the chairman of Protect Our Care, echoed similar remarks, citing polls conducted by the organization about health care. Based on Protect Our Care polls, he said that 56 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track to reforming health care.

He also said that the rising cost of health care is the number one issue for voters nearing the midterm elections in November.

“It’s really a slap in the face to the overwhelming desires of the majority of the American people,” he said.