Republicans strongly support coverage of pre-existing diseases, but remain silent on how to proceed

MRepublicans who stand for election do not hesitate to tell voters that they support the health insurance protections for people already afflicted, but they often wonder if they also support them. policies to ensure that these protections are valid or affordable.

Several Republican campaigns in tough races for the Senate considered by the Washington Examiner would not say if they support essential health benefits, protection to ensure that people with pre-existing conditions benefit from their specific treatments, or a community classification, a protection to ensure that diets are not too expensive .

For example, Leah Vukmir, a Republican running to overthrow incumbent Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, is supporting coverage of pre-existing troubles, campaign spokeswoman Jahan Wilcox said.

But when asked if Vukmir was in favor of essential health benefits and community assessment, Wilcox said at the Washington Examiner that it would not enter the weeds.

Vukmir, like many other Republican candidates, has faced Democratic attacks that do not really support coverage of patients with pre-existing conditions.

For Democrats, this is a winning issue: Polls show that voters are the first to be interested in health care and that the protection of sick or wounded people is popular. Sensitive to his party's risk, President Trump tried to convince voters that the GOP favors pre-existing protections. He tweeted Thursday that "all Republicans" supported pre-existing protections, and that he would "talk" to those who do not.

An expert in health care said that Republicans probably did not want to talk about the details of coverage of pre-existing conditions, as this would increase the unpopular repeal effort of the government. Obamacare from last year.

"The ACA, adopted by the House, repeals the bill and the Graham-Cassidy proposal last fall [in the Senate] would have made the coverage much more expensive or, in some cases, impossible to get coverage, "said Matthew Fiedler, a member of the Brookings Institution's Center for Health Policy, a think tank.

Since a large majority of Republicans supported one of these bills, "it's easy to see why many members might want to avoid the topic," he added.

Essential health services require Obamacare insurers to cover 10 plans, including maternity care, mental health care and hospitalization. Community ratings require insurers to apply the same rate for all persons in a geographic area, the objective being that an insurer may not impose on a person with a pre-existing condition more than a healthy person lying in the same area.

These two policies complement Obamacare's requirement that insurers not refuse coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. The three protections apply to the plans sold on the Obamacare insurance scholarships, which are designed to help those who do not benefit from the work coverage or the government.

Republicans struggling do not cite support for interdependent policies, even though they claim to support the protection of pre-existing conditions that the other two provisions are supposed to support.

Other Republicans refused to say they supported the essential health benefits and the community's assessment.

For example, a spokesman for Mike Braun, a businessman opposing Senator Joe Donnelly of the D-Ind., Said Braun "believes that the plans that really work for Hoosiers will come from market-based solutions, and not what the big government and the insurance industry.

Braun also touted the health care coverage that he provided to his employees as proof that he will protect people with pre-existing illnesses. Under federal law he was obliged to do so.

Senator Dean Heller, R-Nev., The most vulnerable GOP incumbent, has also been criticized for supporting the repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.

His campaign aims to determine if he supports the policies by noting that Mr. Heller "co-authored two laws that preserve the protection of Nevadians with pre-existing conditions".

One of the bills in question would codify protections for pre-existing conditions for individuals in the individual market.

But several health analysts have found that legislation is lacking because it does not guarantee coverage of essential health benefits. Insurers would be required to cover people with preexisting conditions, but not their treatments.

"This would allow insurers to exclude any coverage from pre-existing conditions – a trap," tweeted Larry Levitt, executive vice president of research firm Kaiser Family Foundation, after the bill's release.

The campaign for Representative Kevin Cramer, RN.D., however, stated that he felt that "insurers must cover people regardless of their health status and that they should not be able to charge more premiums." high because of an ongoing disease cover. "

Cramer challenges Senator Heidi Heitkamp. D-N.D.

His campaign said states should seek exemptions from the federal government to establish "new standards of benefits."

"The current law prohibiting the charging of customers based on their state of health should remain in force and could only be lifted by a State if that State had chosen to take charge of the population through other mechanisms. risk-sharing or reinsurance, "said the campaign.

The proposal is modeled on a controversial amendment to the House of Representatives' Bill on Repeal by the representative Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., Who himself is facing a tough re-election campaign.

The amendment would have created the possibility that states would abandon essential health benefits and classify the community for individuals in the individual market, which means that people in those states could lose the protections if they changed. health care plan or coverage.

This amendment certainly helped to ban Obamacare from the House, but he laid the groundwork for a wave of democratic allegations that the Republicans were going to repeal pre-existing conditions.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Conservative non-partisan legislative bill states that it would be more difficult for people with pre-existing conditions to obtain affordable coverage if they lived in states of renunciation.

Republican candidates also did not explain what they would do if a lawsuit brought by GOP ending Obamacare ended.

Texas and 19 other states have filed lawsuits to eliminate Obamacare as a whole, arguing that it was unconstitutional without the penalty under its mandate and repealed as of 2019.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey both joined the trial. Hawley challenges Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., And Morrisey will face Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

Both said that they support coverage for pre-existing conditions, but none offered a plan to insure this coverage if the lawsuit is successful.

Neither Hawley nor Morrisey have returned a request for comment for this story.

The Ministry of Justice supports the trial and refused to defend Obamacare in court. The GM said the court should not get rid of the entire law, but only protections for pre-existing conditions.