Collins once supported same attacks on ACA she now calls 'disappointing'

Last week, Senator Susan Collins said she found the Trump administration’s refusal to defend the Affordable Care Act “very disappointing,” but in a previous legal brief, Collins made some of the same legal claims as the ACA’s current challengers, arguing that the entire law should be overturned.

This about-face and votes she has taken to undermine the ACA and put the Act in legal jeopardy are leading supporters of the health care law to accuse Maine’s senior senator of hypocrisy.

In 2010, Collins and 35 other U.S. senators signed on to an amicus curiae brief in the case of Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services. In that filing, authored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the lawmakers argued that the individual mandate is central to the Affordable Care Act and that the entire ACA should be struck down if the mandate is removed.

“[T]he individual mandate was at the heart of the Patient Protection and Afford-able Care Act (“PPACA”) and was essential to the passage of the entire law,” argued the senators. “The PPACA cannot stand without it.”

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/collins-once-supported-same-attacks-on-aca-she-now-calls-disappointing/