Tillis Praises GOP Tax Bill That Puts Entire ACA At Risk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 14, 2020

Tillis Praises GOP Tax Bill That Puts Entire ACA At Risk

Lawsuit Based on GOP Tax Bill Could Wipe Out Entire ACA, Including Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions

Raleigh, N.C. - In a speech last Friday to North Carolina Republicans, Senator Thom Tillis praised a 2017 Republican tax bill that has become the basis for a lawsuit to wipe out the entire Affordable Care Act, calling it “historic” and “very successful.” In a brief filed before the Supreme Court last month, the Trump administration asked the Court to strike down the ACA in its entirety, including gutting consumer protections that prevent insurance companies from discriminating against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

“There is nothing ‘historic’ or ‘very successful’ about trying to gut the health care of hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who depend on the Affordable Care Act,” said Piedmont Rising Executive Director Casey Wilkinson. “Trump’s legal efforts to wipe out the ACA would be devastating for North Carolinians who, in the middle of a global pandemic, are struggling to afford premiums and prescription drugs or who have a pre-existing condition. Instead of repeatedly voting to increase health care costs and now celebrating the prospect of North Carolinians losing their health care, Sen. Tillis should be fighting to preserve it.”

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

• Senators Tillis and Burr have each voted at least seven times to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety

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

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