The Trump administration filed a brief Thursday night calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act — which allows millions of Americans to get health insurance coverage — just as the nation smashed a record for new COVID-19 cases in a single day.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued in a brief that because Congress in 2017 invalidated the law’s individual coverage mandate — by dropping a tax penalty for those without health insurance — the “entire ACA thus must fall.”
The court is scheduled to hear arguments later this year, but a decision might not come until 2021. The move threatens health care coverage for more than 20 million Americans.
Democrats were appalled. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed the action to “rip away” health care protections in the “dead of night” and in the “middle of a pandemic.”
In the dead of night, the Trump Administration has once again asked the Supreme Court to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. #ProtectOurCare https://t.co/IB0oglIMDV
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 26, 2020
“If President Trump gets his way, 130 million Ameri