Newly emboldened by the end of the Mueller investigation and claiming vindication, Donald Trump is returning to an ambitious policy goal that he had previously been defeated at: completely eliminating the Affordable Care Act. This is something that Trump failed to do even when Republicans had control of both houses of congress. But now the Trump Administration hopes to achieve this goal via the courts.
As Dylan Scott of Vox reports:
The Trump administration wants the federal courts to overturn the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, an escalation of its legal assault against the health care law.
The Justice Department said in a brief filed on Monday that the administration supports a recent district court decision that invalidated all of Obamacare. So it is now the official position of President Trump’s administration that all of the ACA — the private insurance markets that cover 15 million Americans, the Medicaid expansion that covers another 15 million, and the protections for people with preexisting conditions and other regulations — should be nullified.
Even if the Trump administration loses this in court, they’ve given Democrats an election issue for 2020. It’s now abundantly clear that Trump is opposed to all features of ACA including the most popular parts such as protecting people with preexisting conditions.
