Aca-Sabotage

Trump Administration Expands 'Junk Insurance' Short-Term Plans to Undermine ACA

| Importance: 7/10

The Trump administration finalized regulations expanding short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans from a maximum 3-month term (set by Obama in 2016) to 364 days with renewability up to 3 years total. These plans—derided by critics as ‘junk insurance’ and ’the Trump …

Trump Administration Department of Health and Human Services Department of Labor Department of Treasury America's Health Insurance Plans +2 more healthcare aca-sabotage trump-administration insurance-regulation junk-insurance +2 more
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Texas Leads 20 Republican States in Lawsuit Seeking to Eliminate Entire ACA

| Importance: 9/10

Twenty Republican state attorneys general and governors, led by Texas, filed Texas v. Azar (later California v. Texas) in federal district court, arguing that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s zeroing of the individual mandate penalty rendered the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The …

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Judge Reed O'Connor 20 Republican State Attorneys General California Attorney General Xavier Becerra U.S. Supreme Court +1 more healthcare aca-sabotage legal-challenges republican-attorneys-general supreme-court +2 more
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Supreme Court Rejects King v. Burwell Challenge to ACA Subsidies in Federal Exchanges

| Importance: 8/10

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in King v. Burwell that premium tax credits are available to qualifying individuals in all states, rejecting a challenge that would have eliminated subsidies for millions in the 34 states using the federal healthcare exchange (HealthCare.gov). The lawsuit, filed by …

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Justice Antonin Scalia King (Plaintiff) Sylvia Burwell (HHS Secretary) healthcare aca-sabotage supreme-court subsidies legal-challenges +1 more
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Marco Rubio's Risk Corridor Amendment Triggers ACA Insurance Market Destabilization

| Importance: 8/10

Senator Marco Rubio successfully inserted a provision into the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 that prohibited the Department of Health and Human Services from using general appropriations to fund the ACA’s risk corridor program, limiting payments to only user …

Senator Marco Rubio U.S. Congress Department of Health and Human Services Insurance Companies healthcare aca-sabotage insurance-markets legislative-sabotage republican-obstruction +1 more
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Supreme Court Makes ACA Medicaid Expansion Optional, Enabling State Obstruction

| Importance: 9/10

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the Affordable Care Act’s mandatory Medicaid expansion was unconstitutionally coercive, making it optional for states. While Chief Justice John Roberts upheld the individual mandate as a valid …

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts National Federation of Independent Business Republican Governors Republican State Attorneys General healthcare aca-sabotage supreme-court medicaid partisan-obstruction +2 more
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House Republicans Launch Six Years of Symbolic ACA Repeal Votes

| Importance: 7/10

Three days after taking control of the House, Republicans passed H.R. 2, the ‘Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,’ in a 245-189 vote with three Democratic defections. The bill was never considered by the Democratic Senate. This initiated a six-year campaign of symbolic repeal …

House Republicans Speaker John Boehner Rep. Joe Barton Rep. Pat Meehan Speaker Paul Ryan +1 more healthcare aca-sabotage republican-obstruction symbolic-politics legislative-theater +1 more
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