Ahead of Anniversary of GOP’s Last Attempt to Gut the Health Care Law, Georgia Republicans Are Still Plowing Ahead with Reckless Lawsuit

Republicans continue politically toxic crusade to gut health care law and threaten protections for 1.8 million Georgians with pre-existing conditions in a global pandemic

ATLANTA — As tomorrow marks the 3-year anniversary of the GOP’s last failed attempt to gut the health care law and threaten coverage protections for 1.8 million Georgians with pre-existing conditions, Georgia Republicans are continuing with their attacks on health care with a reckless lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to strike down the entire law.

While then-“political mega-donor” and current unelected Senator Kelly Loeffler was busy writing checks to anti-health care politicians, Senator David Perdue and Congressman Doug Collins were proud supporters of the GOP’s efforts to gut the health care law in Congress. Perdue, who said in 2015 that the law “should be entirely repealed,” voted for all of the GOP’s attempts to gut the law even as he “conceded” that the proposals “would make it hard for people to afford insurance.” Congressman Doug Collins, meanwhile, called the law a “disaster” while lamenting the GOP’s failure to repeal it.

Now, Republicans are again trying to do through the courts what they couldn’t pass through Congress with their lawsuit to “terminate” the health care law. What would that look like for Georgia?

• Over 1.8 million Georgians with pre-existing conditions could see massive price increases and lose access to care.
• One million Georgians would lose their health care coverage.
• Georgians 26 and younger would be kicked off their families’ coverage.
• Essential benefits coverage protections ranging from maternity care to basic prescription drugs could be gone.

Perdue recently doubled down on his support for this lawsuit earlier this month after already pledging that he “of course” supports it, while Collins has praised it as a way to “overcome” the law and Loeffler has pledged to stand behind Republican leadership’s agenda “100%” — even as she ducks questions on the lawsuit itself.

“Republicans have spent years chipping away at the health care law and protections for people with pre-existing conditions — and now they are asking the Supreme Court to gut the entire law in the middle of a pandemic,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “In the midst of a surging coronavirus outbreak, Georgia families should not have to worry about losing their health care, yet every single Republican Senate contender supports this reckless lawsuit that would threaten care for millions during a global pandemic.”

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