Kansas City, Mo. (May 2, 2019) – Siding with insurance companies over Missouri families, Attorney General Eric Schmitt joined the appeal of a Texas lawsuit, aiming to abolish the Affordable Care Act in its entirety. Elimination of the 2009 law would end protections for patients with pre-existing health conditions, lifetime cost limits, prohbitions against insurance discrimination against women, tax credits for small businesses to insure their employees, and allowing young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.

If the legal effort Schmitt supports is successful, thousands of Missourians could lose their health insurance coverage.

Lauren Gepford, Executive Director of the Missouri Democratic Party released the following statement:

“After hiding on the issue for weeks, our unelected Attorney General has finally taken a position on the ACA lawsuit. Few will be surprised that he decided to side with the insurance companies that can fund his campaign over the citizens of his state. Missourians deserve an Attorney General that works for them rather than one who wants to score points with insurance companies and the Trump Administration. Schmitt should end his pattern of declining comment on this issue and explain to the public why he decided to join Missouri with this legal effort at the taxpayers’ expense.”

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Background

The filing from yesterday is available online here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/admin/2019/Press/2019.05.01%20Brief%20of%20State%20Appellees.pdf

On April 2, noting that two Republican state Attorneys General had declined to join this case, the Missouri Democratic Party called on Schmitt to state his position. He did not.
https://missouridemocrats.org/media/missouri-democratic-party-calls-upon-ag-eric-schmitt-protect-health-insurance-coverage-missourians-pre-existing-conditions/