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By a 2-to-1 margin, U.S. voters disapprove of the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to support a lawsuit that would eliminate popular protections for patients with preexisting conditions under the Affordable Care Act, a new poll shows.
The survey of likely voters by Hart Research Associates is another sign of mounting political problems for Republicans heading into the November mid-term elections, putting GOP candidates on the defensive for the Trump DOJ’s decision not to defend one of the most popular features of the ACA.
The survey of more than 1,000 likely voters by Hart for the group Protect Our Care was conducted June 11 to 17 following the action by Republican state attorneys general to challenge the constitutionality of consumer insurance protections like the ban on refusing coverage or charging higher premiums to Americans with pre-existing conditions.
The poll, which is the latest to show growing support for the ACA, and its consumer protections in particular, shows 66% of voters disapprove of the Trump Justice Department’s move and nearly half, or 47% of all voters "strongly disapprove" of the lawsuit gutting the ACA's consumer protections . Only 11% strongly approve, the survey shows.
"Our new polling shows that protections for pre-existing conditions remain a sacred cow for voters, who strongly disapprove of the recent Trump Administration decision to attack this popular provision of the health care law," Hart Research President Geoff Garin said. "Voters respond with notable intensity to this decision, and almost half believe it could directly impact their own households."
Large majorities of Democrats (87%) and independents (72%) disapprove of the Trump Justice Department’s actions, "while Republicans are much more divided in their views (57% approve, 43% disapprove,” Garin said in a Sunday memo accompanying the poll results.
In its letter to U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican not running for re-election this November, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions says the decision not to defend the ACA came “with the approval of the President of the United States.”
Already, providers of medical care and health insurers have voiced strong opposition to the Justice Department’s brief in support of Texas and 19 other states attempt to declare as unconstitutional protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.
“The elimination of these protections could result in millions of people facing limited access to health care coverage and higher cost as a result of insurers being allowed to return to discriminatory coverage and pricing practices,” the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association, and American Psychiatric Association said in a statement. “As physicians who provide a majority of care to individuals for physical and mental conditions, we can speak clearly that these insurance reforms and protections are essential to ensuring that the more than 130 million Americans, especially the more than 31 million individuals between the ages of 55 and 64, who have at least one pre-existing condition are able to secure affordable health care coverage.”
At issue is whether insurers should be subject to community rating and guaranteed issue rules that help millions of Americans with preexisting conditions. Insurance companies, too, don’t want the rules to go away, fearing the end of such patient protections will destabilize the individual insurance market.
“Removing those provisions will result in renewed uncertainty in the individual market, create a patchwork of requirements in the states, cause rates to go even higher for older Americans and sicker patients, and make it challenging to introduce products and rates for 2019,” America’s Health Insurance Plans said. “Instead, we should focus on advancing proven solutions that ensure affordability for all consumers.”
AHIP represents several health insurance companies that sell individual coverage on and off the ACA’s public exchanges including Centene, Oscar Health, Anthem, Molina Healthcare and most Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans.
