Senator Susan Collins is working overtime with a sham vote today to paper over her real record of voting to put Mainers’ health care at risk, but there’s no doubt that she paved the way for the Republican lawsuit to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act when she cast a decisive vote for the 2017 GOP tax giveaway.
The Trump administration is even basing their case to eliminate the ACA on the argument that Senator Collins “knowingly voted to destroy the health care law” when she voted to repeal the individual mandate. That adds up, because in 2012 Collins signed on to an amicus brief that argued the health care law could not stand without the mandate. And even after it became clear that her party was using the tax bill to try to eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions, Senator Collins has maintained that she doesn’t regret her vote “at all.”
Senator Collins’ real record on health care is clear: she has repeatedly voted to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and endanger health care for thousands of Mainers.
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Senator Collins voted at least a dozen times to fully repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act, and co-sponsored two bills to repeal the entire health care law without a replacement.
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Senator Collins wrote a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act that she claimed would protect people with pre-existing conditions — in reality, it contained major loopholes health care policy experts and advocates said would have undermined protections and left people with pre-existing conditions "especially vulnerable."
As she gets more desperate to stay in Washington, Senator Collins is doing everything she can to distract Mainers from her record of putting her party ahead of Mainers.
“Senator Collins has worked overtime in Washington to undermine health care protections for millions of Americans,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Mara. “Mainers can see through her political games—they know that Senator Collins is no champion when it comes to health care, and they will elect a senator in November who will actually fight for people with pre-existing conditions and put Mainers first.”
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