One week after voters chose not to reelect Donald Trump to another term as president, the Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case that centers on a long-held goal of Trump and other Republicans: abolishing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The stakes could not be higher. If the Supreme Court were to overturn the law, the move would upend the U.S. health system in ways that affect nearly every American in the middle of a worsening pandemic. More than 20 million people would lose health insurance, protections for people with pre-existing health conditions would disappear, preventive care—including a future coronavirus vaccine—would no longer be free, and most health plans could charge patients more and cover less care.
Without a political fix, “the results would be immediate and calamitous,” Nicholas Bagley, a health law expert at the University of Michigan Law School told TIME recently.
“Tens of millions of [previously uinsured] people who gained coverage under the law’s various pathways could lose that coverage overnight,” says Renuka Tipirneni, a primary care physician and health policy researcher at the University of Michigan hospital.
Gone as well would be the ban on discrimination based on preexisting conditions – from cancer, to COVID-19, to asthma, diabetes and much more. Until the ACA was enacted, insurers refused to cover people with preexisting conditions, or charged them much more for insurance. The ACA made those practices illegal.
Also eliminated would be coverage for low-income adult Americans who became eligible for Medicaid when all but a dozen states took advantage of the ACA to expand federally subsidized coverage under the Medicaid program. Among those who have benefited are many who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs in the COVID-19 pandemic. (More at NPR )