Cincinnati joins three other cities in suit against Trump over Affordable Care Act

Jennie Key | Cincinnati Enquirer

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Cincinnati has joined Baltimore, Columbus, and Chicago in a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump and members of his administration with undermining the Affordable Care Act and forcing local governments to spend more money caring for the uninsured.

The cities allege in the lawsuit that after failing to persuade Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump and his administration are "waging a relentless campaign to sabotage and, ultimately, to nullify the law.

"Their objective: to pressure Congress to repeal the Act or, if that fails, to achieve de facto repeal through executive action alone," the suit said.

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The suit says this is being done by discouraging Americans from enrolling in health care plans, working to raise prices and reduce the available choices and "misappropriating funds Congress allocated to support the ACA to attack it."

The suit, filed in Maryland U.S. District Court Thursday, claims that actions taken by the president and administration means Cincinnati is having to pay more to support clinics that serve the uninsured and underinsured population, more to maintain ambulance services that respond to calls from uninsured residents, and more to manage an increasingly less healthy population.

The suit says the Cincinnati Health Department, with an annual budget of approximately $51 million and staffed with 490 employees, subsidizes a number of health centers that facing greater demand as the rate of uninsured and under-insured individuals increases.

The suit said the centers saw 13,123 uninsured patients - an 11 percent increase over the 2016 figure of 11,776 patients.

The suit also claims that Cincinnati's Fire Department dispatches ambulances to meet urgent health needs, regardless of whether the call comes from an individual who has health insurance or is otherwise able to pay for the call.

In 2017, the fire department answered more than 62,000 emergency medic calls resulting in 34,000 hospital transports. The suit said about 4,300 of those transports involved uninsured patients. Each of these numbers increased from 2016 to 2017, the suit states.

The suit claims the defendants’ actions are causing the uninsured rate in Ohio to rise, claiming Cincinnati, like Columbus, has a higher uninsured rate than Ohio overall and is likewise particularly vulnerable to the defendants’ attempts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act.

The suit asks the court to intervene and stop attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, and order defendants to to encourage rather than limit,

access to quality health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Also named as defendants are the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Alex M. Azar II, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and administrator Seema Verma.