Murphy talks pre-existing conditions at Wesleyan

MIDDLETOWN — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, D- Connecticut, visited Wesleyan University Friday as part of his Conversations Across Connecticut series, in a forum focused on health care.

Murphy was joined by state Rep. Matt Lesser, state Sen. Mae Flexer and health care advocate Ted Doolittle Friday at the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life on Church Street, according to a news release.

Murphy, a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, discussed what’s at stake for access to health care, particularly for the more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, the release said.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and oral arguments began in the Texas v. United States case challenging protections for pre-existing conditions, according to Murphy’s office.

“The judge took it seriously, and this case could make its way very quickly to the Supreme Court,” the senator said in the prepared statement, discussing the Texas v. United States lawsuit. “And so Kavanaugh would have an opportunity shortly after having been confirmed, if he’s confirmed, to do what I think he’s being sent to the court to do which is to strike down the Affordable Care Act.

“If the Affordable Care Act went away, there is no way that Connecticut could reconstitute the hundreds of millions of dollars that we get to expand coverage.”

Murphy went on to discuss, if confirmed, the impact Kavanaugh would have on the access to reproductive health care: “… and, as you saw yesterday, whether he meant to do it or not, Kavanaugh parrots the bogus right wing propaganda on birth control calling it a ‘abortion inducing drugs.’

“He told you all he needed to know about where he is coming from, if we really needed any confirmation of the fact that he is being put on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Murphy added.

Contributed photo U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, hosted a health care roundtable Friday at the Wesleyan University Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life in Middletown.