JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/OBAMACARE/PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Tens of millions of people who get health insurance through their job could face waiting periods for coverage or find that specific medical conditions aren’t immediately covered if the courts back a request by the Trump administration to toss key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Most of the attention surrounding a recent Justice Department request to strike down parts of the ACA has focused on the individual market, where people buy their own coverage. But the request would also rewind some protections for the vast majority of Americans—some 175 million people—who get health coverage via small and large employers, analysts said…The Justice Department last week filed a brief in a continuing lawsuit brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general seeking to strike down the ACA. The department largely supported the lawsuit, which argues that the health law is invalid since its penalty on people who don’t get insurance was repealed late last year as part of the Republican tax plan. The administration asked the court to halt the ACA’s guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing health conditions and to relax limits on how much insurers can charge older people and women. The ACA established consumer protections in the individual insurance market, but it also enacted protections in employer-provided coverage, especially for smaller companies.”
-Stephanie Armour, “Get Health Coverage at Work? Lawsuit Against ACA Could Affect You, Too,” The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2018 5:10 pm