LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced in Los Angeles Thursday a legal challenge to the proposed elimination of a key element of the Affordable Care Act, which is under threat of repeal by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Becerra and more than a dozen fellow Democratic attorneys general filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed in 2014 by House Republicans that threatens to undercut the affordability of health insurance plans under the ACA. The lawsuit is pending before an appeals court in the District of Columbia.
The suit, House v. Price, was filed during President Barack Obama’s administration and challenges the legality of providing billions of dollars in subsidies to insurance companies to lower deductibles and other out-of-pocket health-care costs for people with modest incomes.
Becerra said even the threat of ending such funding could destabilize the healthcare market and increase premiums by as much as 21 percent, according to Becerra.
“No parent should worry if they can afford to take their child to a doctor or hospital,” Becerra said. “President Trump’s unpredictable behavior and lack of defense of the health care coverage of millions of Americans under the ACA threatens to resurrect those fears of every parent.”
In California, since the inception of the ACA, the number of Californians without health insurance has fallen from 17 percent of the population in 2013 to 7.1 percent in 2016. Becerra said the figures represent a historic low.
“Here in California, more than 5 million people now receive quality, affordable health care under the ACA, many for the first time,” the AG said. “No one wants to return to the days when a child was denied care because of a preexisting condition, when a woman was charged more than a man for the same health care plan, when you needed care the most and found you had reached your lifetime limit.”
Attorneys for the House Republicans have been filing motions to delay proceedings in the lawsuit while Congress debates proposals that would repeal the ACA — known as Obamacare — altogether, a move that would render the lawsuit moot.
The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans have identified repealing the ACA as one of their top legislative priorities. The House recently approved a bill repealing most of the legislation but the issue still needs to be debated in the Senate.
Countering one of the key Democratic criticisms of the legislation, Republican leaders have insisted that the House-approved legislation, known as the American Health Care Act, will provide options for people with pre-existing conditions. White House officials said that under the bill, nobody can be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, with $120 billion in funding earmarked for states to cover costs for people with such conditions.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the legislation is a bill that “gives them (Americans) the care that they need, that allows them to go see a doctor, that covers pre-existing conditions and does so in a way that’s not going to be out of range and unaffordable for most Americans.”
Democrats blasted such claims, insisting that millions of people with pre-existing conditions will either lose coverage or be forced to pay unaffordable premiums under the proposal.
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Sam says
I have noticed that lots of Republicans in California tend to make some of the lousiest spending choices in their lives — always playing “keep up with the Jones’s” trying to constantly “one up” everyone else in their equally vapid circle of friends.
Then, when they hit retirement age and the bell begins to toll they secretly realize that they didn’t need the 6-bedroom McMansion with granite countertops, the speedboat, the supersized RV, the year-round Disney passes, the credit card debt and all of the mortgage debt, to make themselves happier. They could’ve been just as happy with half of it, or even less and they secretly confess as much.
Yet, do you think they blame themselves for their personal situation? Hell No!
They simply turn the volume up on Fox News and right-wing talk radio and they blame the state of California, the government, the taxes, the “illegals” who cleaned their pools and trimmed their lawns all those years, people on “welfare”, the single moms, etc., etc. but they never bother to openly and honestly look at themselves as the cause of their own misery.
Then, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions –like they preach to everyone else as nauseum — they hightail it out to Arizona, Idaho or some other place and make the natives of those states miserable too.
AV'er in Idaho says
Matt K. you really should read my comments before posting. Obamacare is nationwide and my original comment is direct impact statement of what it has meant to me financially as I pay for the healthcare of others.
If Obamacare is working for you, it’s because the system is taking money (and freedom) from people like me. I get my insurance through work (a Fortune 100 company) so your comments about red states doesn’t apply. I get no government subsidies for healthcare, and wouldn’t take them anyway. In this regard, harming others to better myself is just not a part of who I am.
The fact is Obamacare harms more people than it helps. I am one of those harmed.
Finally, your ridiculous comment about not having the right or standing to comment on this site is a reflection of the quintessential liberal. If you don’t like the message, attack the messenger. Clearly you can’t win on the merits of your position so you try to deny my right to legitimate discourse.
You should read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Maybe it will help you understand just how foolish your “argument” truly is.
And for the record I spent 47 years in the AV. I went to Yucca, Joshua, AVHS and AVC (where I taught for 12 years after college). I have great friends and family in Palmdale, Lancaster and Quartz Hill. I have family buried there. Moving away to pursue a better life in no way removes my right, and my desire, to stay connected to the place where I grew up.
Tim Scott says
No, the fact is that it helps more people than it harms. You happening to believe that you are one of the harmed doesn’t change that.
Sam says
Nobody cares. Go pester the people in that fugly state of Idaho that you love so much!
AV'er in Idaho says
Tim… LOL… seriously, try to keep up and stay within context of the string.
In a free and fair marketplace, as a consumer, I have the right to choose when and where I spend my money. I never said markets are perfect. They are not and they are two different things.
What you need to understand is this… I believe that as a consumer, have the right to choose when and where I spend MY money on goods and services. I should not be forced out of the market for a service (healthcare) due to an inflated price (regulation) to offset the cost of the same service for other, able bodied consumers.
Further,I should not (as William asserted) have to change my consumption (buy different socks) so I can pay for healthcare of said able bodied people.
I’m done with the free economic/freedom lesson now. I’ve read your posts before, it won’t do any good to continue.
Tim Scott says
Glad that ‘lesson’ is over, since you don’t seem to grasp the basic concepts.
Consumers don’t “have a right” to anything with regard to spending. You can stamp your foot about what you want until you break it, but the market is under no obligation to provide you with anything to buy, much less at the price you think is “fair.”
AV'er in Idaho says
You really need to learn reading comprehension.
According to you, nobody has, or should have, a choice over their own consumption.
California is doomed…..
Tim Scott says
LOL…so you blather this bit about my reading comprehension, then demonstrate that you completely failed to understand what I said. That’s actually hilarious.
Let me try again.
The consumer has no RIGHT to anything. They are a participant in the market. If the market changes, which the market for health care services definitely has, tough luck. You don’t have some magical power to keep that from affecting you.
Nor have you demonstrated any value that makes it seem like a social imperative to bias the market in your favor at the expense of millions of others. Overall it sounds like you went to Idaho in search of a quiet place to live out your days doing nothing for anyone, and the shorter your span the better. I’d rather see the market biased in favor of young families.
AV'er in Idaho says
Really… now you are calling for my early death?
You have managed to demonstrate who you really are, and it is a hateful, gerontophobic bigot who is incapable of civil discourse.
I will notify the authorities, as well as the moderators of this site, of your terrorist threat. requesting immediate action to end your abuse of this forum and protect others from your hateful bigotry and implied violence.
Tim Scott says
LOL…the fact that I said “the shorter your span the better” wasn’t a threat, and only an idiot could perceive it as one. Believing the world would be better off without you does not imply any sort of action in the matter on my part.
By the way, it’s unlikely that you are significantly older than I am.
Sam says
Dang Tim! …Now he’s gone full Short Bus! …He’s gonna notify the authorities of of your “terrorist” threat ! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
William says
You are REALLY upset, AV’er in Idaho.
Your last rant about ‘terrorist threats’ to you are over the top and reveal a disturbed mind.
I thought guys who moved to Idaho were big, tough dudes. Not you.
Sam says
Most of em’ are actually closet racists and panty-wearing pansies who like to perform fellatio on their guns when their wives aren’t looking !
William says
Hey, Sam
Please don’t hold back. LOL
Itt’s so funny that what those guys do to prove their ‘manhood’, such as it was at one time, now serves to illustrate the opposite.
He will now live among his own kind and will wonder why his life is just as miserable as ever……..in Idaho. The clue is that he is posting to a news site in his former location.
AV’er in Idaho is still not HAPPY. But, at least the moving company made a few bucks off him or U-Haul.
William says
You’re upset, AV’er in Idaho.
It’s not fair for us to go after you because you’re just flailing about firing blanks.
No new information can penentrate your skull.
Laughing says
Are you upset that you have to purchase insurance to drive, that covers the other driver and not you? Yes, as a consumer I can purchase uninsured motorist, and make sure I have full coverage but the point is… we are being forced to purchase that, what is the difference when it comes to health insurance?
Tammy Taylor says
“Here in California, more than 5 million people now receive quality, affordable health care under the ACA, many for the first time” ??? That is a Joke, a BIG JOKE. There is no quality in this health care system at this point. The only ones getting anything out of this are the doctors and insurance companies.
Tim Scott says
The irony here is too delicious for words.
AV'er in Idaho says
Take from the middle class, give to the poor, make more of the middle class poor. My rates have tripled and deductibles have quadrupled since Obamacare was implemented. It is to the point that I can’t afford the coverage I need because I’m paying for other people.
William says
Doesn’t it concern you, even in your own private Idaho, that you are paying taxes to subsidize the welfare redstates so they can keep their state taxes low?
Of course not.
AV'er in Idaho says
I made simple statement of facts. Red or blue makes no difference. My disposable income has decreased to the point where my financial stability is very much threatened. End of story.
William says
Then you should have someone else select your socks.
Are you worth the expense of your health care insurance? It sounds like you’re not. Guess you’ll have to miss seeing the latest blockbuster movie this weekend.
AV'er in Idaho says
You clearly think I should not have the right to a free and fair marketplace and to spend my money as I see fit. Let me guess, you are a liberal, aren’t you?
Let me answer your question. Yes, I am worth healthcare.
The point is others are not entitled to my blockbuster movie or my socks or anything else I earned. To be certain you understand my point, the important words are “I earned”.
Stay in California, Wiliiam. Enjoy the increase in gas tax, enjoy the increase in car registration, enjoy the county paying for the legal defense of illegal immigrants. I happen to believe you have a right to do as you please with your money.
As for me, I’d rather go to blockbuster, buy nice socks, and have healthcare I want at a price I can afford.
Tim Scott says
LOL…”right to a free and fair marketplace”? Seriously?
So, here’s the thing…IF you want someone to provide you a free and fair marketplace then you are gonna have to allow them to regulate that marketplace. A free market contains the seeds of its own destruction, ie monopolization.
Now, unless you think you deserve to have that service provided for free you are gonna have to pay for it. Now, you get to be less bitter about the taxes you pay that provide you this market that you “have a right to.” You’re welcome.
Matt K. says
If Idaho is so “great” then why are you coming back and commenting on Antelope Valley and California news???
You must either be bored, obsessed or a little of both.
The reason the ACA got crippled is because Republican states (like Idaho) refused to take MediCare dollars that were specifically alotted to each state for the purpose of subsidizing and lowering the cost of insurance. Idaho and other “red states” refused to take the federal money so that they could de-rail the ACA from the get-go.
And, it worked! So, if you want to complain, then give your Idaho governor and state legislators a call and complain to them! Leave us in California alone! …We wanted the ACA to work and it has been for us.
William says
AVer in Idaho.
You clearly didn’t ‘get’ the sock reference because you are stuck in a rant. If red or blue doesn’t matter, have someone else pick out your socks. Nothing to do with the marketplace just color selection.
You have a myopic view of the health care issue in this country focusing only on your circumstances.
You think that your premiums increasing is less harmful than someone else going without health insurance. Yet, you seemed very concerned that you might have to do without it or you’d drop it.
Go ahead. Drop your insurance and do what you assume isn’t all that harmful for others to go without.
Matt K. says
Let me get this straight…?
You’re coming on here and whining about the ACA being so horrible —yet—you live in Idaho where the Republican state government in Boise chose to purposefully underfund the program in their intent to derail it…and it has failed in that state and caused your health care premiums to rise and —yet, again— you want us to feel sorry for you because you chose to move to a backwoods Republican state that has terrible health care policy?
REALLY???
It’s almost amusing.
William says
Hee, here, Matt K.
You got it exactly right.
The only problem is that there are millions of like-minded poorly informed people out there.
Matt K. says
It’s absolutely baffling to me, William!