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Republican AGs push forward with dismantling Obamacare amid coronavirus

Some Republican AGs are pushing to dismantle Obamacare amid the spread of the coronavirus. Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers joins Zack Guzman to discuss.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Meantime, we're watching Republican attorney generals across the country move forward with plans to dismantle Obamacare despite the uncertainty we have going on right now in hospitals across the country. I want to bring in Kristin Myers, who's been looking into that. Kristin, what have you been hearing?

KRISTIN MYERS: Hey, Zack. So this is all coming after presidential candidate and former VP Joe Biden actually wrote a letter to President Trump, the state attorneys general, and also the Mississippi governor Tate Reid. And in that letter, he said-- and I want to quote him here-- "at a time of national emergency, which is laying bare the existing vulnerabilities in our public health infrastructure, it is unconscionable that you are continuing to pursue a lawsuit designed to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance and protections under the Affordable Care Act, including the ban on insurers denying coverage or raising premiums due to pre-existing conditions."

Now, we recently had, just a couple of days ago, the Affordable Care Act, which everyone calls Obamacare, it actually turned 10. It's actually unbelievable that this has actually been on the books for 10 years, given all the back and forth around it. But what we're seeing now is a lot of people, because of this crisis, are actually relying on the Affordable Care Act in order to get health insurance, to get coverage, to go get care while they are sick.

But I actually reached out to some Republican attorneys general that were actually named in that letter for a response and to see if they would actually be willing to drop that lawsuit, especially now as we have millions of Americans relying on Obamacare for their coverage. So I want to read to you some of their statements. So we first had the Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry.

He said-- and I'm quoting here-- "Joe Biden is attempting to play politics right in the middle of a pandemic. His letter to President Trump on the legal issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act is not only in poor taste, but also uninformed. A federal court has already ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional. It is critical the Supreme Court finish its review."

He is, of course, referring to the fact that the Supreme Court now decided just at the beginning of March to actually take up and see whether that individual mandate is actually unconstitutional and if the law itself is unconstitutional. We also had a response from the Georgia attorney general, Chris Carr. He wrote, it's shameful that the former vice president of the United States would play crass politics during a national crisis. Republican AGs will continue to uphold the Constitution, fight to protect those with pre-existing conditions, and ensure better health care outcomes for the American people.

And of course, I have to include a response from the man who is essentially leading the charge on that lawsuit to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, that's the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton. He said, and quote, "it's unfortunate that a former vice president would choose to play petty politics during a global crisis. To return to a failed system that forces private citizens to purchase insurance products they don't want would be a criminal to both our health care system and the federalism intended by our founders. That failed. An unconstitutional system is not the solution to our present crisis or the long term needs of Americans in need of affordable, quality health care."

And it's interesting that he actually said that this is not actually a solution. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people are relying on the Affordable Care Act for care during this time, even to the point that 11 states have now actually decided to reopen their enrollment. As you guys know, the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act-- or just for insurance in general-- has long since passed. We have 11 states, including California, Connecticut, New York, even, that actually decided because of this global crisis that they are going to re-open that enrollment and allow people to essentially sign up for the Affordable Care Act and get care if they need it.

ZACK GUZMAN: All right, Kristin Myers, tough to think about a time where it would be good to have a lot of people have to worry about these health care concerns-- but a pandemic doesn't seem like the best time at all. Kristin Myers, thank you so much for bringing us that. Appreciate it.

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