Rather than fast-track the latest challenge to Obamacare, the Supreme Court punted past the 2020 election. And while that appears to be a win for the so-called Trump administration, it puts Trump's 2016 lies about "terrific healthcare at a fraction of the cost and it's going to be so easy" on the front burner for 2020.
The outcome means Trump will face less pressure to articulate an Obamacare replacement plan during the campaign. Republicans failed to agree on an Obamacare replacement when they had complete control of the federal government in the first two years of Trump's presidency, and they haven’t come up with a new plan since then. A health care proposal developed by Trump's Medicare chief Seema Verma was nixed last summer over her colleagues' concerns it would have actually strengthened Obamacare rather than replace it.
Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach gets this right:
By likely getting their wish to postpone a Supreme Court decision on this destructive lawsuit until after the election, Donald Trump and the Republican Party have succeeded in their quest to spare themselves the political consequences of their effort to take away health care from 20 million Americans and protections for 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. Instead, the health care millions of Americans remains under attack and the same judge who already declared the entire law null and void will remain in the driver’s seat. It’s time Donald Trump ended his war on America’s health care and the terrible threat to the health care of millions of Americans.
Don't underestimate the memory capacity of those of us whose health insurance hung from John McCain's thumb in 2017. Healthcare as an issue has not been put on the back burner by SCOTUS. It's now clear that our healthcare as it is NOW is under threat from Republicans.
RELATED: Physicians are breaking with the AMA and endorsing single payer/public option plans.
