DEMS/HEALTHCARE/HOUSE OF REPS/PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration’s decision to ask a federal appeals court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act has given House Democrats a new opening to pursue what they see as a winning political strategy: moving past talk of impeachment to put kitchen-table issues like health care front and center. The notice to the court, filed late Monday [3-25-19] by the Justice Department, could not have come at a more opportune time for Democrats. The finding by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, that there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, dashed the hopes of the most partisan Democrats that the House would impeach the president. Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who celebrated her 79th birthday on Tuesday [3-26-19] — had already planned to move to change the conversation with the unveiling of the Democrats’ own health care plan on Tuesday. The Democrats’ bill aims to lower health insurance premiums, strengthen protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions and ban the sale of what Democrats call ‘junk insurance.’ The Justice Department’s move gave the unveiling an urgency that not even she could have anticipated.”
–Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Democrats Pivot Hard to Health Care After Trump Moves to Strike Down Affordable Care Act,” The New York Times online, March 26, 2019