Obamacare’s future will once again be at stake Tuesday when a federal appeals court considers a Trump-backed lawsuit aimed at scrapping the health care law in the heat of the 2020 election cycle.
“If ultimately the trial court's decision does get upheld, it’s going to have really far-reaching consequences,” said MaryBeth Musumeci, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. “That will be pretty complicated to disentangle and reach nearly everyone in the country.”Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox.By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO.
“There’s a pretty strong bias … to try to preserve things under law, rather than knock them down,” said Tom Miller, a health care expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “The preponderant stance has been to go minimal in terms of knocking out broad federal laws.” Democrats’ health care messaging has been muddled this year by growing calls among progressives, including some 2020 presidential candidates, to vastly expand government coverage and virtually abolish private insurance.
“The scale of cruelty is so large it's almost unimaginable,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on a call with reporters Monday. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Even before oral arguments, the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit spooked ACA supporters by questioning whether the blue states or the House have