“The Trump administration seems determined to undo the progress we’ve made in the past 15 years to help people get medical treatment when they need it,” said Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.
A multistate coalition of attorneys general have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s changes to the Affordable Care Act and related insurance exchanges.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the “unlawful final rule” proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will cause up to 1.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance coverage.
Millions more, Bonta and his allies say, will likely face constrained enrollments, increased premiums, and higher copays and deductibles.
The final rule also excludes most forms of gender-affirming care, which will no longer be classified as an essential health benefit, or EHB, under the Affordable Care Act.
“Far from delivering on their promises to drive down costs and ‘make America healthier’ the Trump Administration’s HHS and CMS are doing their best to make it harder and more expensive for Americans to obtain health insurance and access care,” Bonta said in a statement.
“These sweeping changes would impose onerous verification requirements, junk health insurance premiums for some consumers, shorten enrollment periods in federal and state healthcare exchanges like Covered California, deprive up to 1.8 million Americans of health insurance, drive up out-of-pocket healthcare costs and so much more. It’s unlawful and it’s wrong – we’re meeting the Trump Administration in court to defend Americans’ healthcare coverage,” Bonta said.
The lawsuit is being led by Bonta and the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New Jersey; it is being supported by an additional 17 state attorneys general, as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“The Trump administration seems determined to undo the progress we’ve made in the past 15 years to help people get medical treatment when they need it,” said Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. “People in Washington deserve the health coverage they’re entitled to under the law, and I will continue fighting to protect that access.
In a separate statement, Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson said that the state is already planning to fill some of the gaps left by the final rule, but emphasized that the difference will come out of taxpayers’ pockets.
“Everyone deserves affordable health care,” Ferguson said. “Washington will stand with our partners across the country against the Trump administration’s efforts to strip away people’s health care. Reversing this unlawful rule will help thousands of Washingtonians hold on to their health coverage.”
The lawsuit claims that the rule is unlawful both because it is “arbitrary and capricious,” and because its rapid passage allegedly violates the administrative Procedure Act.
Sources
Democratic attorneys general sue to block changes to ACA health insurance marketplaces
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