Senator Warner, Virginia Democrats Slam Trump’s Health Care Lies and Broken Promises Ahead of Debate
Ahead of the first presidential debate tonight, Senator Mark Warner and Virginia Democrats slammed Donald Trump for the many broken promises and lies he’s made to Virginians about their health care. Senator Warner was joined by Delegate Nancy Guy (D-Norfolk, Virginia Beach), Anne Shoup from Protect Our Care, and Dr. Ebony Hilton, an Anesthesiologist and Associate Professor at University of Virginia Health Care System to put people on the look out for Trump’s health care lies ahead of the debate, particularly his repeated attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and take away health care from 3.5 million Virginians who have pre-existing conditions. A full recording of the conversation can be streamed here.
“Three and a half million Virginians, including my daughter…have pre-existing conditions. The law that protects people with pre-existing conditions is the ACA. So when Donald Trump says he wants to get rid of the ACA, when my opponent says he wants to get rid of the ACA…that means you can’t have it both ways, you can’t protect people with pre-existing conditions and not have the market reforms and the framework of the ACA…This whole choice is put in even more relief because this president is trying to rush through a Supreme Court nominee even though Americans and Virginians are already voting. That is wrong, that is inappropriate, and particularly because literally the week after the election the Supreme Court will hear the case about the ACA. And if we are jamming through justices that are committed to doing away with the ACA, the protections that we all have come to rely upon will disappear,” said Senator Mark Warner (D-VA).
“The pandemic has only sharpened our focus and made it even more clear that disaster can strike anybody at any time and access to affordable health care is essential to being able to conduct your life…Only two years ago did we expand Medicaid to over 400,000 low-income Virginians. And if the Affordable Care Act is overturned, that coverage is going to go away…And then there are the 3.5 million people who the insurance companies aren’t going to want to insure anymore. And as everyone said I am one of those people as a breast cancer survivor…These things aren’t my fault and they could happen to everybody,” said Delegate Nancy Guy (D-Norfolk, Virginia Beach).
“With this vacancy on the Supreme Court and coronavirus ravaging our country, health care is on the ballot this year. And Trump is working hard to spin lies to obscure his disastrous record on health care…One week after the election there will be oral arguments before the Supreme Court on this case that, if successful, would completely overturn the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic…The stakes could not be higher. If Donald Trump is successful, the lawsuit could rip health care away from more than 23 million Americans, that’s 740,000 Virginians…Republicans want to take us back to the days when insurance companies can make the rules and Virginians can be denied the coverage that they need,” said Anne Shoup, Communications Director, Protect Our Care.
“Whenever someone doesn’t have a plan they often distract…and that’s exactly what we’ve seen from Donald Trump over the last four years…We talk often about pre-existing conditions and I think people need to realize COVID-19 has really shifted what we expect the percentage of people presenting with pre-existing conditions [to be] within not only the next year but for the next decade because this virus is causing people to have long-term impacts…When you’re looking at a president who himself has pre-existing conditions, he should empathize with what that means and know that no one signed themselves up to have a pre-existing condition, no one wants to have a pre-existing condition, so why would you penalize someone?” said Dr. Ebony Hilton, Anesthesiologist and Associate Professor, University of Virginia Health Care System.
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