At Tonight’s Debate, Tillis Must Answer Why He Will Rubber Stamp Justice Who Will Gut Health Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

September 22, 2020

At Tonight’s Debate, Tillis Must Answer Why He Will Rubber Stamp Justice Who Will Gut Health Care

600,000 North Carolinians Will Lose Health Care, Coverage for for 1.7 Million with a Pre-Existing Condition in Jeopardy

Tillis Slammed for “Blind Subservience” to Party Bosses

RALEIGH, N.C. - The next Supreme Court Justice is going to cast a deciding vote on whether 600,000 North Carolinians will lose their health care, and at tonight’s debate, Thom Tillis must explain why he promised to rubber stamp a nominee who would vote to take away that coverage and gut protections for 1.7 million North Carolinians with a pre-existing condition. Yesterday, Tillis was slammed in the Charlotte Observer for “blind subservience” to Trump and McConnell’s “audacious and divisive” Supreme Court power grab.

“Thom Tillis is a coward whose final act in the Senate will be to rubber stamp a radical Supreme Court nominee intent on terminating health coverage for 600,000 North Carolinians,” said Piedmont Rising Executive Director Casey Wilkinson. “At tonight’s debate, he must be held to account and forced to explain why he is blindly following his Washington party bosses to spike insurance premiums and the cost of prescription drugs while also gutting pre-existing conditions protections for 1.7 million people across North Carolina. Tillis continues to sell out North Carolinians on health care, and it’s why he must be defeated this November.”

Background:

• If the ACA is struck down, an estimated 607,000 North Carolinians would lose coverage, an estimate that has increased by 100,000 since the start of the pandemic

• More than 1.7 million non-elderly North Carolinians, 28 percent of the state, have a pre-existing condition that would allow insurance companies to deny them coverage if the ACA is struck down

• Tillis has voted at least seven times to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety

• Tillis voted for the 2017 GOP tax legislation that amended the ACA and paved the way for this most recent lawsuit

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