The Trump administration announced Tuesdayit supports a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
“We must protect preexisting conditions,” said Sen. Martha McSally, R-Arizona, after the announcement.
The ACA requires insurers to provide coverage to someone with a preexisting condition. McSally does not support the ACA but says she wants a federal healthcare policy that protects people with preexisting conditions.
“I meet a lot of people right now, under Obamacare, that have preexisting conditions that don’t have health insurance or their premiums are so high or their deductibles are so high that essentially they’re paying cash out-of-pocket and they can’t afford their care,” she said.
In 2015, when McSally was a member of the U.S. House, she voted to repeal the ACA. Two years later she voted for a different measure that would have repealed the ACA, called the American Health Care Act.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, that measure would have significantly raised premium prices for those with preexisting conditions.
At the time she did support an amendmentthat would have provided $8 billion in funds to offset the cost of high premiums if the American Health Care Act was implemented.
That measure failed in the U.S. Senate, with the late Sen. John McCain casting a dramatic "no" vote.
