Wyden Blasts Latest Trump Scam On Pre-Existing Conditions

Election-Year Pageantry Does Not Hide Trump’s Terrible Health Care Record

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today issued a statement after the president signed a series of executive orders marketed as steps to protect people with pre-existing conditions. In fact, these measures will leave the health care system with massive loopholes for insurance companies to deny people health care, falling well short of the ironclad protections in the Affordable Care Act.

“Donald Trump is once again lying about the damage he's doing to our health care system, which will lead to bigger insurance company profits, higher costs for Americans, and more people suffering and dying from their pre-existing conditions,” Wyden said. “After promising a health care plan for years, the best Trump can do is offer a flimsy decree that does nothing to protect people with pre-existing conditions. His real plan lies in a lawsuit before the Supreme Court that would cripple America’s health care system in the middle of a pandemic. Trump and his Republican allies will stop at nothing until the health care safety net and ironclad protections Americans count on are destroyed.”

The Trump executive order will say people with pre-existing conditions are protected from discrimination, but every Republican proposal to date has been riddled with loopholes that allow insurance companies to deny health care to those who need it. If the Affordable Care Act is struck down in the Supreme Court, as Trump and Republican states are advocating, pre-existing condition protections will mean little in the face of annual limits, the elimination of key essential health benefits like prescription drug coverage, and many other harmful policies that will return.

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