Other LanguagesSEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson offers the following statement ahead of Tuesday’s oral argument defending the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
“A group of Republican attorneys general are seeking to eliminate the Affordable Care Act without any replacement — and the Trump Administration callously refused to defend the law, threatening the health care of millions. Without the Affordable Care Act, hundreds of thousands of hardworking Washingtonians will lose access to affordable health care coverage, and many more will face devastating cost increases. That’s why Washington and a multistate coalition have stepped up to defend the Affordable Care Act. We’ll continue fighting to protect Washingtonians’ access to affordable health care all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”
Oral argument in Texas v. United States starts at 11 a.m. Pacific in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans.
A multistate coalition including Washington is appealing the decision of a federal district court judge in Texas declaring the ACA invalid, including its guarantee of coverage for those with preexisting conditions.
Republican Attorneys General, led by Texas, filed the challenge to the ACA in February 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Those states argue that, because Congress zeroed out the tax penalty used as enforcement of the individual mandate in December 2017, the entire ACA is unconstitutional.
In a brief filed in June 2018, the Trump Administration declared that it would not defend the ACA against the challenge by the Republican Attorneys General. In a letter to Congressional leaders, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the decision not to defend the ACA was made “with the approval of the President of the United States.”
Because of the Administration’s decision, Ferguson, 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a motion to intervene in the case on the side of the federal government to defend the ACA. This is not one of Ferguson’s 40 lawsuits against the Trump Administration. Twenty states and the District of Columbia now comprise the multistate coalition.
More than 800,000 Washingtonians depend on the ACA for their health care. Since the ACA went into effect, Washington’s uninsured rate dropped by 60 percent, and now fewer than 6 percent of Washingtonians are without health insurance.
If the ACA is eliminated, Washingtonians would lose an average of $295 per month in federal premium subsidies, and more than 600,000 people enrolled in Apple Health as part of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion would lose coverage. Insurers would once again be allowed to discriminate based on medical history, and patients would again be subject to annual and lifetime limits to their health benefits.
Ferguson has defended the ACA on multiple occasions, including defending against a previous challenge to the law by the U.S. House of Representatives, and filing a lawsuit to ensure critical funding would continue. Ferguson also filed two “friend of the court” briefs in cases challenging tax credits for low- and middle-income people buying health insurance (Halbig v. Burwell and King v. Burwell).
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The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal office for the state of Washington with attorneys and staff in 27 divisions across the state providing legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.
Contacts:
Brionna Aho, Communications Director, (360) 753-2727; Brionna.aho@atg.wa.gov