What They’re Saying: Editorials Across The Country Slam President Trump’s Actions To Undermine Our Health Care System
Tampa Bay Times (FL): Why The Affordable Care Act Should Be Saved, Not Killed.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO): Trump, Hawley Bid To Kill Obamacare Endangers America's Health — And The GOP's.
Houston Chronicle (TX): Foiled Again. Trump’s Got Nothing On Obamacare Replacement.
Washington Post Editorial: Trump’s New Attempt To Undo Obamacare Is Senseless. “President Trump humiliated the Justice Department this week, not with something he tweeted but in a move that could be far more consequential. According to Politico, the White House ordered the department to change its position on a major anti-Obamacare lawsuit — from weird to truly wacky — despite opposition from Attorney General William P. Barr. Indeed, Mr. Barr should be embarrassed: The legal reasoning at work in the decision is poor, and the erosion of Justice Department norms is worrying.” [Washington Post, 3/27/19]
USA Today Editorial: Trump Prattles On About Making GOP 'The Party Of Great Health Care,' But Republicans Have No Such Plan. “Whether the Supreme Court would throw out all of Obamacare, after finding it to be constitutional, is doubtful. A strategy of judges working with lawmakers on a partisan goal would undermine Americans' faith in their judiciary. But the biggest loser of all, should this effort succeed, would be the millions of Americans who would be stripped of their health coverage.” [USA Today, 3/27/19]
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: The Trump Administration Is Attacking The Affordable Care Act Yet Again. “Nullifying the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would potentially result in the loss of health insurance for about 21 million Americans. The loss of the ACA would also destabilize Medicaid, the insurance program for the poor that’s jointly funded by the federal government and the states. Even Americans who aren’t at risk for losing their health insurance coverage would be affected. Losing the ACA would mean losing the law’s overwhelmingly popular provisions, like the ban on health insurance companies’ former practice of denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/26/19]
CONNECTICUT
New London Day Editorial: The Party Of Broken Promises And No Ideas. “Having failed to repeal Obamacare through the legislative process, the Trump administration seeks to destroy it through the courts. The Department of Justice is supporting on appeal a much-criticized Texas federal judge’s ruling that the ACA is unconstitutional and fully null and void. If the ruling is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, as Trump hopes, gone would be the ability to buy insurance policies on the state exchanges; the extension of Medicaid to cover more people; the prohibition against insurance companies denying coverage (or charging excessive premiums) to folks with existing medical conditions; and the ability to keep children on family plans until age 26. An estimated 21 million people would lose their health insurance. And, remember, Trump and the Republicans admit they have no replacement plan.” [New London Day, 4/7/19]
FLORIDA
Gainesville Sun Editorial: Don’t Expect ‘Spectacular’ Health Plan. “With his allies in the Trump administration seeking to overturn the ACA in the courts, [Sen. Rick] Scott has promised a plan to retain coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Don’t buy it. About 21 million Americans would lose their health insurance if the ACA was overturned and more than 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions would face uncertainty about being able to afford insurance. Republicans have undermined the ACA rather than fix flaws with the measure since it was passed nine years ago, offering inadequate alternatives that are far from ‘spectacular.’ Scott’s abysmal record on health care in Florida suggests more of the same after 2020 if Republicans have their way.” [Gainesville Sun, 4/7/19]
Tampa Bay Times Editorial: Why The Affordable Care Act Should Be Saved, Not Killed. “The law has saved countless lives, and it is supported by far more Americans than oppose it. Yet the Trump administration has irresponsibly announced it wants to overturn the entire law by agreeing with a Texas judge who ruled that it is unconstitutional. Never mind that neither the president nor congressional Republicans have an alternative ready to replace the Affordable Care Act.” [Tampa Bay Times, 4/1/19]
LOUISIANA
The Advocate Editorial: Address Obamacare Through Legislation, Not Litigation. “Destabilizing such a large part of the economy through a highly debatable opinion from a single district court ruling, as the administration wants the 5th Circuit to do, would be damaging to many interests. Further, the GOP majorities in the House and Senate last term failed to offer a coherent alternative to Obamacare. Democrats ran on saving Obamacare in their successful bid to take over the House. Louisiana is one of the states with a Republican attorney general joining in the Texas lawsuit. This seems particularly insensitive to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Louisiana families now getting Medicaid insurance coverage.” [The Advocate, 3/31/19]
MASSACHUSETTS
Springfield Republican Editorial: Trump’s Muddled Message On GOP, Health Care. “No matter what Trump would have people believe, Democrats are the party of health care -- and have long been so -- and Republicans are the party of taking away people's coverage. Folks who care about protecting those with preexisting conditions understand well that it’s the Democratic Party, not the Trumpublicans, that has their back.” [Springfield Republican, 4/3/19]
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: Trump, Hawley Bid To Kill Obamacare Endangers America's Health — And The GOP's. “Since Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., helped bring us to this moment by signing on to the underlying lawsuit while he was Missouri’s attorney general, he has an obligation to explain to Missourians who could be affected by this what exactly they’re supposed to do.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/27/19]
NEW JERSEY
Newark Star-Ledger Editorial: Trump’s Biggest Con Is Health Care. “Donald Trump’s endless effort to destroy health care is his most spectacular scam, in a long and successful career as a con man. His Justice Department has announced that it will seek to kill the entire Affordable Care Act in court, all its hundreds of provisions, with no alternative for the nearly 20 million people who are suddenly left uninsured. Trump has no plan to protect these folks, many of whom voted for him. He never has. Even now, he says he is in ‘no very great rush’ to come up with one.” [Newark Star-Ledger, 4/2/19]
NEW YORK
Newsday Editorial: Political Malpractice: Trump's New Attack On The ACA. “Repeal of the ACA could throw the nation’s health care system and the lives of tens of millions of people into a chaos many Republican members of Congress and Trump have repeatedly promised to avoid. That’s why every attempt to repeal the ACA legislatively failed. If the ACA disappears, approximately 23 million people could lose their health insurance, including 12 million now on Medicaid, 9 million who receive federal subsidies to buy coverage and 2 million young adults who get coverage through their parents’ plans. Close to 3 million New Yorkers could lose coverage.” [Newsday, 3/30/19]
New York Daily News Editorial: One Sick Move: Trump’s Justice Department Seeks To Kill The Affordable Care Act In The Courts. “In asking for the whole health-care law to be struck down, the administration reverses an argument it made as recently as last summer that the individual mandate — which a federal judge struck down — is legally distinct from many other vital provisions, which it obviously is. Nope, Trump’s Justice Department asserts, the whole enchilada, which now has the support of 50% of Americans, with just 39% opposed, should be rendered moot without a vote. This outrage is brought to you by the party that claims to respect the powers of Congress and abhor judicial activism.” [New York Daily News, 3/27/19]
NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer Editorial: Life Without Obamacare? Some Reminders Of What It Was Like. “Republicans and Trump will argue this week that they don’t really want Obamacare gone, but that the law simply doesn’t support it. The reality, however, is that the administration is actively pursuing the ACA’s death when it doesn’t have to. The reality also is that if the courts ultimately do the deed, a split Congress will not be able to pass any kind of substitute. That means the country will go back to a health care system similar to what we had, with no individual exchanges, with Medicaid expansion threatened, and with millions of Americans losing health coverage. Congress might be able to save some pieces of the ACA, such as coverage of pre-existing conditions, but that too would be a long shot.” [Charlotte Observer, 3/26/19]
OHIO
Columbus Dispatch Editorial: Trump’s Delusion Won’t Make GOP Health Care Champions. “’Let me tell you exactly what my message is: The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care,’ he told reporters on Tuesday. We suggest he left a word off the end of that comment: devastation. That will be the result if Trump and his Justice Department are successful in pursuing total invalidation of the Affordable Care Act through a court challenge pending in a federal appeals court in New Orleans.” [Columbus Dispatch, 3/29/19]
Akron Beacon Journal Editorial: ‘Party Of Health Care’? Not Without A Plan. “Here is another wholly unnecessary and unhelpful episode sparked by the president. No question, health care can make for contentious policy discussions. Yet there are some things where a clear consensus has formed, with voters offering confirmation at the polls. Is the president then merely playing to his base by doubling down on his opposition to the Affordable Care Act?” [Akron Beacon Journal, 3/28/19]
TEXAS
Houston Chronicle Editorial: Foiled again. Trump’s got nothing on Obamacare replacement. “The ACA’s survival despite legal challenges, improved economic conditions, and outright sabotage from a president who promised to bury it, is a testament to the law’s value. The longer Obamacare is in the fabric of government programs that help ensure the health and safety of Americans, the harder it will be for Trump to cavalierly dump it like some minion he’s decided to fire.” [Houston Chronicle, 4/4/19]
Mcallen Monitor Editorial: Just Fix It: ACA Can Be Improved, But Repeal Isn’t Needed. “Apparently emboldened by Attorney General William Barr’s summary report of Robert Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation that declined to seek new indictments, President Trump and congressional Republicans have resurrected their attack on the Affordable Care Act. Once again they are calling for a total repeal and replacement of the health care plan known as Obamacare. They should just give it a rest. A complete replacement of the federal healthcare law isn’t necessary, and what would they replace it with? We don’t know, and apparently neither do they.” [McAllen Monitor, 4/7/19]
Beaumont Enterprise Editorial: GOP Must Show Voters Obamacare Alternative. “Political arguments aside, Obamacare does provide health insurance for people who wouldn’t have it otherwise. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that if it were simply repealed with no replacement, up to 32 million people could lose health insurance. That’s not right, or even economical. That group of up to 32 million people would still have some level of health problems and need some degree of care. They just wouldn’t have insurance policies to help pay for it.” [Beaumont Enterprise, 4/1/19]
VIRGINIA
Virginian-Pilot Editorial: Gutting ACA Would Mean Widespread Hardship. “If the Trump administration and its allies in Congress proceed in this way, if they push for the courts to invalidate the ACA without a suitable replacement for those who would be harmed, they will most certainly pay a steep political price for doing so — as well they should for governing in such haphazard and heartless fashion.” [Virginian-Pilot, 3/28/19]
WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Gazette-Mail Editorial: Having Learned Nothing, Trump Goes After Obamacare Again. “The ACA isn’t perfect, but no one wants to return to a time when an insurance company could deny a claim or even a coverage policy because it deigned something a pre-existing condition. ‘The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care,’ Trump told reporters earlier this week. Americans have seen what that looks like. There was no reason to believe Trump and the Republicans then, and there’s certainly no reason to believe the president now.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail, 3/28/19]
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