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Collins asks Justice Dept. to not support strikedown of Affordable Care Act
Source: CNN
Collins asks Justice Dept. to not support strikedown of Affordable Care Act
By Devan Cole, CNN
Updated 1538 GMT (2338 HKT) April 1, 2019
Washington (CNN) — Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote in the Senate, is asking the Justice Department to reverse its recent support of a total strikedown of the Affordable Care Act, saying the job of eliminating aspects of the health care law should be left to Congress.
"Rather than seeking to have the courts invalidate the ACA, the proper route for the Administration to pursue would be to propose changes to the ACA or to once again seek its repeal. The Administration should not attempt to use the courts to bypass Congress," Collins, who represents Maine, wrote in a letter sent Monday to Attorney General William Barr.
In a dramatic reversal last week, the Justice Department, in a filing with a federal appeals court, sided with the ruling of a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Obama-era health care law last year.
-snip-
In her letter to Barr, Collins said certain parts of the law -- such as the penalty for not having insurance, which Congress effectively eliminated from the law in 2017 -- could be jettisoned while others remained. The individual mandate requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance and had mandated those who didn't to pay a penalty.
"It is implausible that Congress intended protections for those with preexisting conditions to stand or fall together with the individual mandate, when Congress affirmatively eliminated the penalty while leaving these and other critical consumer protections in place," she wrote. "If Congress had intended to eliminate these consumer protections along with the individual mandate, it could have done so. It chose not to do so."
-snip-
By Devan Cole, CNN
Updated 1538 GMT (2338 HKT) April 1, 2019
Washington (CNN) — Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote in the Senate, is asking the Justice Department to reverse its recent support of a total strikedown of the Affordable Care Act, saying the job of eliminating aspects of the health care law should be left to Congress.
"Rather than seeking to have the courts invalidate the ACA, the proper route for the Administration to pursue would be to propose changes to the ACA or to once again seek its repeal. The Administration should not attempt to use the courts to bypass Congress," Collins, who represents Maine, wrote in a letter sent Monday to Attorney General William Barr.
In a dramatic reversal last week, the Justice Department, in a filing with a federal appeals court, sided with the ruling of a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Obama-era health care law last year.
-snip-
In her letter to Barr, Collins said certain parts of the law -- such as the penalty for not having insurance, which Congress effectively eliminated from the law in 2017 -- could be jettisoned while others remained. The individual mandate requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance and had mandated those who didn't to pay a penalty.
"It is implausible that Congress intended protections for those with preexisting conditions to stand or fall together with the individual mandate, when Congress affirmatively eliminated the penalty while leaving these and other critical consumer protections in place," she wrote. "If Congress had intended to eliminate these consumer protections along with the individual mandate, it could have done so. It chose not to do so."
-snip-
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/01/politics/susan-collins-affordable-care-act-justice-department/index.html
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Senator Collins is officially concerned about this. With time, she might even become disturbed.
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
how polite
Collins for retirement, 2020
