Campaign Action
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is unwittingly doing us all a big favor, just by being the guy everybody hates. Consider Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who wants nothing to do with Cruz's effort to undermine Obamacare's protections.
Grassley says he’s concerned how Cruz's amendment might affect people with pre-existing conditions.
"There’s a real feeling that that’s subterfuge to get around pre-existing conditions," says Grassley. "If it is subterfuge and it has the effect of annihilating the pre-existing condition requirement that we have in the existing bill, than obviously I would object to that."
Of course, the discussion draft of the Trumpcare bill Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already undermines pre-existing condition protections, but more indirectly than Cruz would. The state waivers McConnell put in the bill would also create a gigantic loophole in the law to allow insurance companies to put comprehensive insurance for people with pre-existing conditions out of financial reach. Cruz just does it a lot more obviously by allowing insurers to offer junk health plans just as long as they have a comprehensive plan on the market, too. A plan that insurers could price out of reach.
But here's the favor Cruz is doing us all—he's making all these guys (like Kansas's very conservative Jerry Moran say on the record that they won't undermine this key part of Obamacare. That gives us more leverage to hold them to it.
Make your Republican senator feel the heat. Call their office EVERY DAY at (202) 224-3121 to demand that they say NO to ripping health care away from millions of Americans. No on Trumpcare. Then, tell us how it went.