With all the other things in the news, plus the holiday weekend, you may have missed this: Republicans are trying once again to wreck your healthcare, and a group of state attorneys general, including Andy Beshear, are trying to save it.

Twenty Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) on multiple grounds. In that case, a single judge in Texas ruled in 2018 that the entire law became unconstitutional once Congress removed the individual mandate. (If you want a more detailed explanation, read this article at Vox.)

Most legal scholars were aghast at the ruling, saying it was illogical and ill-informed. A competing group of state attorneys general, all but two of which are Democrats, challenged the ruling and appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And, unexpectedly, the Trump administration decided not to defend the law, leaving its defense up to the state attorneys general and some other organizations.

If the appeals court rules that the judge’s ruling was wrong, that will probably end the case, as the Supreme Court would be unlikely to take it up. On the other hand, if the appeals court upholds the lower court that the entire ACA is unconstitutional, then the attorneys general and others defending it will appeal to the Supreme Court, which will probably have to hear the case at that point.

What is at stake?

In a nutshell, everything we have come to expect from our health insurance:

Pre-existing conditions will once again be a cause for denial of insurance.

Approximately 20 million people who gained health insurance through the ACA would lose their coverage.

Insurance companies would once again be able to offer junk insurance, since the “ten essential benefits” law would no longer be in effect.

And, all the other improvements put in place by Obamacare.

The hearings at the appeals court started on Tuesday of this week. The bad news is that two of the three judges appear to be ready to side with the lower court judge and rule that the entire law is unconstitutional.

The good news is that the office of Kentucky attorney general Andy Beshear is one of the AGs that is fighting this latest challenge to our healthcare. Let us hope that they prevail in the end, as no one except insurance companies and some Republicans wants to return to the bad old days of health insurance before the ACA.

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