Democrats Claim Amy Coney Barrett Confirmation Would Threaten Health Care

Judge Amy Coney Barrett listens as President Donald Trump announces Barrett as his nominee
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Hannah Knudsen

Democrats have pivoted to a new line of attack in Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s upcoming confirmation battle, declaring that the health of the American people, particularly those with pre-existing conditions, hangs in the balance, despite President Donald Trump vowing to protect them as part of his America First Health Plan.

Even prior to Trump formally announcing Barrett as his nominee, leftists launched a string of attacks, targeting her faith, family, and conservative positions. Immediately after the formal announcement, Democrat leaders began to tout their party’s last collective narrative, warning that confirming Barrett would jeopardize the future of health care in America and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) more specifically.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-CA) immediately stated that a vote for Barrett “is a vote to eliminate health care for millions in the middle of a pandemic.” He also warned that a solidly right-wing court could “turn back the clock on women’s rights and a woman’s right to choose, workers’ rights, voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental protections, and more”:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also quickly sounded the alarm, declaring that Barrett will “work to gut Roe v. Wade and the ACA, taking away health care coverage from millions of Americans — including those with pre-existing conditions.” She also claimed that Trump would count on Barrett to “swing the Court in his favor when he loses the upcoming election”:

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s (D) running mate, followed suit, stating that “President Trump, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans will stop at nothing to destroy the Affordable Care Act’s protections for 130 million Americans with preexisting health conditions.”

“From day one, President Trump made clear that he had a litmus test for Supreme Court Justices — destroy the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting conditions and overturn our right to make our own health care decisions,” she said in part.

“This is about your healthcare. This is about whether or not the ACA will exist. This is about whether or not preexisting conditions will be continued to be covered,” Biden proclaimed on Sunday.

The warnings stem from the fact that a significant ACA case is expected to come before the Supreme Court yet again in November. Oral arguments for California v. Texas, “a case brought by a coalition of red states aiming to invalidate the ACA on the grounds that its individual mandate — which was upheld by the Supreme Court previously as a tax — is now unconstitutional because Congress eliminated the financial penalty associated with not purchasing health insurance,” are expected to begin November 10.

Fox News reported:

They say this makes it impossible to read the ACA as a tax anymore, so it is now simply an unconstitutional government mandate to purchase a certain product. The Trump administration is backing the red states’ position in the lawsuit.

Barrett, before being confirmed to her current appeals court post, had been seen as critical of the Supreme Court decision upholding the ACA, NFIB v. Sebelius. She wrote in a 2017 article that “[t]o the extent that NFIB v. Sebelius expresses a commitment to judicial restraint by creatively interpreting ostensibly clear statutory text, its approach is at odds with the statutory textualism to which most originalists subscribe.”

…

“Thus Justice Scalia, criticizing the majority’s construction of the Affordable Care Act in both NFIB v. Sebelius and King v. Burwell, protested that the statute known as Obamacare should be renamed ‘SCOTUScare’ in honor of the Court’s willingness to ‘rewrite’ the statute in order to keep it afloat,” she wrote.

Because of that, Democrats now fear that Barrett could tip the scales 5-4, given Chief Justice John Roberts’ history of siding with the left-wing justices on such issues.

The left’s most recent line of attack follows Trump signing an executive order to protect those with pre-existing conditions.

“Any health care reform legislation that comes to my desk from Congress must protect the preexisting conditions or I will not sign it,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Trump allies are pushing back, contending that the radical left’s vision for health care in America is the true threat, particularly to those with pre-existing conditions.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both support healthcare for illegal aliens. Harris co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ $32 trillion socialized medicine plan to turn hospitals into DMVs and put bureaucrats in charge of Americans’ health decisions,” Liz Harrington, Republican National Committee national spokesperson, said in a release.

“The ‘public option’ is no better. Just like Joe Biden himself, it’s a Trojan Horse to usher in the left’s radical agenda,” she continued. “In this case, a single-payer system that would kill private care — which over 180 million Americans depend on.”

Harrington pointed to the failures of Obamacare, including the spike in premiums, health care costs, and “sky-high deductibles.”

Ultimately, Harrington said, nothing would jeopardize the most vulnerable more than government-run health care, which she says Democrats seek to usher in.

While Joe Biden has refrained from committing to a full single-payer health care system — opting instead to focus on his commitment to strengthening Obamacare — his running mate co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) Medicare for All Act of 2019.

“Health care should be a right for everyone in this country, not a privilege for the few,” Harris said in a statement at the time. No family should be forced to go into debt to pay for the medical treatment of a loved one or the prescription drugs they need to stay healthy.”

“Medicare is the most popular health plan in the country because it works,” she added. “Medicare for All finally makes sure every American has affordable, comprehensive health care.”

In recent months, Democrats have been using the Chinese coronavirus to not only advance mass vote-by-mail but a single-payer healthcare system, which could cost over $60 trillion over the next decade alone.

“This is a high-stakes time, because of the pandemic. But this is also a really high-stakes election. And every form of health care should continue to be available, including reproductive health care for every woman in this country,” failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in April.

“And then it needs to be part of a much larger system that eventually — and quickly, I hope — gets us to universal health care,” she added as Biden nodded along.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.