AG Leslie Rutledge grandstands against Affordable Care Act in lawsuit that aims to strip coverage

Leslie Rutledge grandstands against Affordable Care Act in lawsuit that aims to strip coverage from millions of Americans


Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office issued a press release boasting that she is part of a 20-state coalition of red-state attorneys general requesting a preliminary injunction to shut down the Affordable Care Act, thereby stripping health coverage from hundreds of thousands of Arkansans and millions of Americans.

Rutledge proudly joined a lawsuit filed in February that argues that the health care law is now unconstitutional because the GOP Congress nixed the individual mandate as part of the recently passed tax cut.

If a court actually enjoined the entire health care law, the health care marketplaces would be thrown into chaos and millions of Americans would have coverage and access to care threatened. If the entire law was actually thrown out on the basis of this lawsuit, millions of Americans would lose Medicaid coverage, millions more would lose subsidies they depend on for affordable insurance, millions of people with pre-exisiting conditions would again face price discrimination from insurance companies, the exchanges where millions of people currently have health plans would disappear, the Medicare donut hole would be re-opened, and millions of young people would lose coverage they're now getting on their parents' plans. In Arkansas, the uninsured rate would likely more than double overnight. Billions in federal spending on health care in the state would stop. But Republicans would be able to say they beat Obamacare. There can be no greater prize for Rutledge.

Rutledge doesn't mention any of these issues in her press release, instead offering some slapdash talking points: "In its current unlawful form, Obamacare still imposes rising costs and transfers an enormous amount of regulatory power to the federal government."

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/04/27/leslie-rutledge-grandstands-against-affordable-care-act-in-lawsuit-that-aims-to-strip-coverage-from-millions-of-americans