McCaskill co-sponsors Senate move to oppose Hawley-backed lawsuit challenging Obamacare

WASHINGTON • Sen. Claire McCaskill is co-sponsoring a resolution that would direct Senate lawyers to defend against a lawsuit trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, a move that has virtually no chance of passing but highlights the great divide between her and Attorney General Josh Hawley on a key issue in Missouri’s nationally watched Senate race.

McCaskill, D-Mo., along with Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Thursday they would introduce the resolution. The Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to consider it, since its leaders are on record as supporting the aims of the lawsuit by Texas, Missouri and 18 other states. But Manchin and McCaskill said they believe GOP lawmakers were hearing the same concerns they were hearing about continued rising costs and accessibility of health care, and they appealed to them on that basis.

McCaskill and Manchin were part of a bipartisan group of senators — 12 from each party — who unsuccessfully tried to come up with a plan to fix Obamacare after the GOP-controlled Congress last year failed to get enough support in its own caucuses to outright repeal and replace the controversial law.

Republicans took away the individual mandate requiring people to buy insurance in a major tax bill passed at the end of 2017. In addition, President Donald Trump’s administration has been whittling away administratively at the act, which Casey called “sabotage, pure and simple.”

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