CHICAGO – Today marks a crucial hearing in Texas v. U.S., the 20-state GOP lawsuit attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and take healthcare away from millions of Americans. Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D-CA) and sixteen other Democratic attorneys general, including Illinois’ Lisa Madigan, have sought to intervene and vigorously defend the ACA.
“My father was a community physician, the kind of doctor who went on house calls and came home with a block of cheese, because he would never turn away a patient who needed care but couldn’t afford to pay,” said Sen. Kwame Raoul. “Fifteen years ago, I lost my dad to prostate cancer, the same disease that took both my grandfathers. It was the same disease that struck me three years ago, but I was blessed with access to healthcare that provided me with early detection and life-saving coverage.
“So the Trump administration’s unrelenting effort to take healthcare away from Illinois families and children is not only indefensible, it’s personal to me. I believe that everyone, regardless of income or pre-existing conditions, should have access to quality, affordable healthcare. And if Donald Trump won’t enforce the law and protect people, as a cancer survivor and attorney general, I absolutely will.”
The ACA and its individual mandate have survived U.S. Supreme Court review twice and congressional repeal attempts more than 70 times.State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to defend millions of people with preexisting conditions who rely on the ACA for coverage.
What would Erika Harold do? Does she support the GOP lawsuit? Would she join a case like this, or the one our current Attorney General has filed to defend the ACA? Voters deserve to know.