|
Fellow Illinoisan,
We are 33 days away from Election Day on November 3. And we are 40 days away from the Supreme Court taking up the case on November 10 that will decide whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will survive.
President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are dead set on rushing to confirm their nominee to replace the late Justice Ginsburg - Judge Amy Coney Barrett - before those two dates arrive. They have a very specific goal in mind: striking down the ACA and ripping health care coverage and pre-existing condition protections away from millions of Americans. President Trump recently tweeted that he wanted to see the ACA “terminated in the Supreme Court.”
DURBIN: CONFIRMATION OF JUDGE BARRETT IS THE LATEST REPUBLICAN PLAN TO DISMANTLE THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Senate Republicans have been quick to reverse their position from February 2016, when they demanded that the American people be given “a voice” in filling an election year vacancy on the Supreme Court. Now they are rushing to fill a seat that became vacant 46 days before Election Day, because they want another justice on the Supreme Court by November 10 to help them win their lawsuit against the ACA.
If they succeed, Republicans will eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans. They will end protections for people with pre-existing conditions - like asthma, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and COVID-19. And they will raise health care costs for millions more, all in the middle of a pandemic.
John McCain stopped Republicans from repealing the ACA on the Senate floor in 2017. Now Republicans are trying to accomplish in the Supreme Court what they could not accomplish in Congress.
Don’t be fooled - Republicans have no plan to replace the Affordable Care Act if they succeed in eliminating it. What’s at stake with this nomination is the fate of affordable, quality health care and pre-existing conditions protections for millions of Americans. We must fight to protect our health care.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
|
