Connecticut ed Massachusetts, California and Kentucky in filing a lawsuit on Friday challenging the Trump istration’s move to stop $7 billion in federal subsidy payments to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act.
In a conference call with reporters, Connecticut State Attorney General George Jepsen called the move by President Trump illegal, mean-spirited and damaging to working families who need the subsidies to be able to afford healthcare.
“It is intended to destabilize Obamacare, to explode Obamacare. That’s his explicit intent. And it’s just a shame that he’s doing it on the backs of working Americans.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says the states are seeking an immediate court injunction to make sure acting Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan does not stop the subsidies. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading the lawsuit. They are expecting other states will .
In New York, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says he will also sue Trump to protect New Yorkers who could be affected by the cessation of the subsidies.
Referring to President Trump, Schneiderman said, "He has taken his threats of off Twitter and brought them into the living rooms of working families across America and the offices of America’s doctors, nurses and other health care providers.”
Schneiderman says ending the health plan subsidies will cause some health care s to spike and encourage health insurance companies to pull out of the state health insurance exchanges.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed with Schneiderman, saying that even though the action will be challenged in court, there will be an immedicate effect "because insurance companies will be afraid, raise s, and pull out. And it hurts middle class people...one of the plans I saw, your deductible is $12,000. So, what good is having a healthcare plan if the first $12,000 comes out of your pocket? It was a protection to say when you gave a plan you couldn’t have such a high deductible. And they’re undoing that.”
Schumer called the executive order “a wrecking ball to single handedly rip apart our healthcare system.”
Copyright 2017 WSHU
