If Missouri AG wins this lawsuit, you lose protections for pre-existing conditions

In a recent guest commentary in The Star, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt called the critics of his health care lawsuit “intellectually dishonest.” Since I have been among the most vocal of those critics in the past several weeks, I take his accusation very seriously. But in this case, it is Schmitt who is telling half-truths. He could be fighting to preserve guaranteed coverage for the millions of Missourians with pre-existing conditions, but his lawsuit instead seeks to eliminate those protections.

Schmitt says that the lawsuit he and 17 other Republican state attorneys general have filed is all about challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. That provision previously required individuals to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. But Congress already zeroed out the penalty in 2017, making the mandate’s constitutionality a non-issue for Missouri families.

Schmitt ignores the bigger issue in the case: whether the rest of the Affordable Care Act should fall if the individual mandate is overturned. If the entire law is invalidated, health care coverage for millions of families in Missouri and across the country would be at risk. Given Schmitt’s professed desire to preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions, you might guess that he would be asking the court to uphold the rest of the act even if the individual mandate is thrown out. But you would be wrong.

The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate not just the individual mandate, but the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. Schmitt and his fellow Republican attorneys general have asked the court to overturn its provisions allowing children under the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ health insurance. They have asked the court to overturn its protections that make prescription drugs more affordable for Medicare beneficiaries. They have asked the court to overturn the ACA’s prohibition on lifetime coverage caps and its promise of cost-free preventive care. And yes, they have asked the court to overturn its guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Schmitt would have you believe that he’s obligated to challenge these provisions because it’s his duty to uphold the Constitution. But Missourians don’t have to choose between upholding the Constitution and protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions. Even Schmitt calls that a “false choice.” If he wanted to, Schmitt could ask the court to uphold those protections if the individual mandate is struck down, just as 16 other state attorneys general have done. And yet his lawsuit urges the court to overturn those protections — while he tells the readers of this paper that Congress should act to preserve them. If that isn’t intellectually dishonest, I don’t know what is.

As a former federal prosecutor, I pride myself on my honesty and integrity. When I take a position in court, I stand by it. As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Schmitt should be honest with the people of Missouri: If he wins his lawsuit, you will lose guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions. That’s the truth. But instead of standing by the position he’s taken in his lawsuit, Schmitt tries to pass the buck to Congress to craft new legislation to ensure the very protections his lawsuit seeks to eliminate.

The facts don’t lie. Congress already passed protections for pre-existing conditions. Eric Schmitt is trying to overturn them. And he’s spending your tax dollars to do it. If I am elected Missouri’s next attorney general, I will spend my time fighting to protect you and your family, not wasting taxpayer money trying to score political points in the courts. And I will always give you the whole truth, not just half of it.

This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "If Missouri AG wins this lawsuit, you lose protections for pre-existing conditions."