Collins claims not a single GOP senator opposes protections for pre-existing conditions while her own party pursues lawsuit to fully repeal the ACA - made possible by her key vote for GOP tax bill 

 

Yesterday on Maine Calling, after admitting that she and her party have no plan to replace the Affordable Care Act if their lawsuit to eliminate the health care law is successful, Senator Susan Collins made the ludicrous claim that she doesn’t know of a single Senate Republican who doesn’t support protections for people with preexisting conditions. 

 

The truth is that Senator Collins and her Republican colleagues in the Senate have spent the last decade trying to repeal the legislation that created coverage protections for people with preexisting conditions, and none of their proposed replacements would keep those protections in place. In fact, an analysis from the American Nurses Association of the health care plan Senator Collins championed in 2017 found that Collins’ bill would make people with preexisting conditions “especially vulnerable.”

 

Collins is trying to deflect from criticisms of her record with empty promises and platitudes because she knows that she’s voted repeatedly to put people with preexisting conditions at greater risk. After voting a dozen times to repeal or undermine the ACA, Collins backed the GOP tax bill that laid the groundwork for the Republican lawsuit to strike down the health care law. 

 

One month from today, the Trump administration will be arguing before the Supreme Court that Collins “knowingly voted to destroy” the ACA with her vote for the tax bill, including it’s coverage protections for people with preexisting conditions. But even with her allies using her vote to try to kill the health care law, Collins has been adamant that she doesn’t regret her vote “at all.”


“Senator Collins has voted repeatedly to eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “She and her party have put the Affordable Care Act in jeopardy and they have no plan to replace it if their lawsuit to strike it down is successful. We can’t trust Collins to fight for our health care.”  
 

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