Tillis’ Vote to Confirm Coney Barrett Could Cost 600,000 North Carolinians Their Health Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 26, 2020

Tillis’ Vote to Confirm Coney Barrett Could Cost 600,000 North Carolinians Their Health Care

1.7 Million North Carolinians With a Pre-Existing Condition Would Lose Protections if ACA Struck Down

SCOTUS Will Consider Overturning ACA This November

Raleigh, N.C. - Tonight, Thom Tillis voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, a vote that could cost 600,000 North Carolinians their health care in a case before the Court next month. On November 10th, the Supreme Court will again consider whether to strike down the Affordable Care Act. Throughout her career, Coney Barrett has been openly hostile to the landmark health care law, and she is widely expected to vote to overturn it.

Piedmont Rising Executive Director Casey Wilkinson made the following statement:

“Thom Tillis just voted to confirm a radical Supreme Court Justice who is set to wipe out health care for millions of people in the middle of a pandemic. If Amy Coney Barrett helps to overturn the Affordable Care Act, more than 600,000 North Carolinians will lose their coverage, protections for 1.7 million with a pre-existing condition will be terminated, and affordable access to essential health services, such as a COVID vaccine or reproductive health care, will be gutted. North Carolinians will pay more in premiums for less coverage or lose their coverage altogether, resulting in otherwise preventable illnesses, deaths, and financial distress for thousands. Tillis has proven yet again tonight that he is unfit to hold any public office, let alone United States Senator, and his career will be terminated by voters in November.”

Background on Amy Coney Barrett’s record of opposing access to health care, including the Affordable Care Act:

• Barrett is an outspoken advocate for invalidating the ACA. She criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for his decision to uphold Congress’s authority to enact large portions of the ACA. According to Barrett, ‘Roberts pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.’”

• Barrett criticized the Court’s decision in King v. Burwell, where the Court affirmed tax credits that nearly 6.4 million Americans rely on to pay for their health coverage

• In North Carolina, more than 600,000 would lose their coverage if the ACA were overturned, and 1.7 million North Carolinians are living with pre-existing condition

• Barrett’s opposition to the ACA could put a COVID vaccine financially out of reach for millions of people as protections that require insurance companies to cover essential vaccines without cost-sharing would disappear if it were overturned

• Barrett has also been a public critic of the ACA’s birth control mandate, which required insurance plans to cover contraceptives

• Barrett also tried to hide multiple anti-abortion public statements, including lectures to anti-abortion groups and her participation in a paid ad calling for Roe v. Wade to be overturned

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