2.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Advertisements

A lawsuit backed by Donald Trump has the potential to dismantle the Affordable Care Act during the 2020 campaign and leave more than 20 million Americans without health insurance.

According to Politico, “Obamacare’s future will once again be at stake Tuesday when a federal appeals court considers a Trump-backed lawsuit aimed at scrapping the health care law in the heat of the 2020 election cycle.”

Not only would this be a political disaster for the president who is already facing an uphill battle for reelection, but it would be a catastrophe for millions of Americans who receive life-saving treatment and care as a result of the landmark healthcare law.

Advertisements

More from the Politico report:

The court will hear oral arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act is no longer valid after Congress eliminated the tax penalty for not purchasing health insurance. The lawsuit, brought by 18 Republican-led states, could jeopardize health care coverage for more than 20 million people insured through the 2010 health care law, eliminate insurance protections for preexisting conditions, and severely disrupt the country’s $3.5 trillion health care system. Should the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rule against the law, that would all but guarantee the Supreme Court would again take a case directly challenging the ACA’s survival. The high court, which has twice upheld the health care law since it passed in 2010, would likely deliver a final verdict on the ACA as the 2020 campaign season ramps up.

Another election driven by healthcare would be a disaster for Trump

In 2018, exit polling showed that a plurality of voters who turned out said that healthcare was the most important issue to them. By a 24-point margin, the electorate felt that Democrats would address the issue better than Republicans.

Those numbers shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention over the past two years as Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have worked tirelessly to kill the Affordable Care Act and knock millions of Americans off their health insurance plans.

In other words, healthcare was central to the blue wave in 2018, when Democrats won by the widest margin of raw votes in the history of midterms.

With Trump and Republican-led states backing a controversial legal challenge the Affordable Care Act, the issue that drove turnout against the GOP in 2018 could do the same in 2020.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter