Ranking Member Bobby Scott, Protect Our Care Virginia, and Health Care Advocates Discuss Republicans’ Latest Effort to Weaken Protections for Virginians with Pre-Existing Conditions
WASHINGTON — In case you missed it, Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Friday joined Protect Our Care Virginia and health care storytellers to discuss House Republicans' vote to weaken protections for Virginians with pre-existing conditions and undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The call is a response to a legislative package House Republicans passed on Wednesday evening that includes several measures to promote junk health insurance plans that undermine patient protections under the ACA and weaken access to affordable health coverage. The Association Health Plans Act, Self Insurance Protection Act, and CHOICE Arrangement Act all promote insurance plans that undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions and fail to require coverage of essential services like hospital visits and prescription drugs. Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), similar to health savings accounts, only reward the highest-income, and healthiest workers while worsening racial and ethnic inequities in health care.
These bills are just the latest in the Republican war on affordable, quality health care and gut protections for pre-existing conditions and are more about giving tax breaks to the wealthy. If signed into law, this legislation would only force more families to gamble with their health care, putting them at serious risk of medical debt if they get sick. Ranking Member Scott will highlight how President Biden and Democrats in Congress are working to lower costs and expand access to health care, despite ongoing Republican attacks.
“My Republican colleagues in the House have made what is another hopefully futile effort to sabotage the Affordable Care Act,” said Ranking Member Scott. “These junk insurance plans may provide lower costs for some individuals but they do so by cherry-picking healthy and low-risk individuals and pushing costs to older and sicker Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions. When you allow these groups to form their own insurance pool, simple arithmetic dictates that everyone else will pay more.”
“I am a Virginian who has had to deal with Republicans’ attacks on the ACA firsthand ever since I was a teenager. I owe my life to the ACA,” said Mel Pruett of Richmond, who has POTS. “When I was first sick with POTS as a teenager, my family could not afford my treatment, which mostly consisted of daily IV infusions and countless specialists. But luckily for myself, I was able to get on the ACA and see the best of the best specialists in Virginia and go into remission. … Republicans’ continued attack on health care, especially what we just saw a few weeks ago as they tried to rip away health care from 21 million Americans, and now they’re targeting people like myself with pre-existing conditions is simply unacceptable and we cannot let this pass.”
Jennifer Johnson Bowie of Williamsburg spoke on behalf of her daughter who has Type 1 Diabetes. “My bigger concern now that she is in college is that in a relatively short couple years she is going to be on her own. She is going to age out of my insurance … and through no fault of her own, she has what’s considered a pre-existing condition that without proper medication and care, she will literally die. So there is no other option for her – so I have a grave concern for her and the nearly 300,000 other children who are under the age of 20 that have this condition that someday they’re going to have to be on their own … and where are they going to be?”
Cate Weiss of Norfolk, a nurse practitioner and parent of a child with a pre-existing condition, echoed Congressman Scott in saying, “we know and we have good data to support that association health plans provide weaker cost and protection coverage, because they’re not required to provide the same protections as plans under the ACA … Compounding the problem is the fact that these plans do not comply with the essential health benefit requirements … like maternity care, mental health services and substance abuse treatment coverage, which are truly essential and meaningful programs that impact care greatly.”
Myra Payne of Virginia Beach, who worked as a school nurse in both the Norfolk and Virginia Beach public school systems, said, “This legislation is concerning because in my experience in my practice I saw numerous children who already had difficulty with their existing condition, which would be considered a pre-existing condition of diabetes, asthma, and numerous other types of health issues that sometimes even diabetic children cannot even get enough insulin to sustain them through a week to week school. And what is so concerning is that we already have problems with insurance and medications being affordable for families and I think this legislation just compounds those issues.”
You can watch the event here and learn more about the latest Republican attacks on Virginians with pre-existing conditions here.
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