Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., released a new ad on Tuesday touting his efforts to improve healthcare after facing scathing attacks from his opponent for his support for repealing Obamacare and, with it, protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Heller, the most vulnerable GOP senator facing re-election this fall, said in a new ad that opponent Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., has passed no bills to improve healthcare. The ad is an attempt to counter Rosen’s stream of attacks that Heller has sought to roll back protections for pre-existing conditions in attempting to repeal Obamacare.
Rosen is the latest Democratic candidate to focus on healthcare in a Senate bid. Vulnerable red-state Democratic incumbents like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri are both bashing their opponents for supporting repeal of Obamacare.
Heller voted to repeal Obamacare in the Senate last July. He also co-sponsored a repeal effort led by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana that fell apart last September.
Heller’s ad said that Rosen hasn’t offered a healthcare plan nor has had any bills passed during her tenure in the House to improve healthcare.
“Dean Heller has stepped up to the plate and fought for this state by authoring and supporting legislation that would protect people with pre-existing conditions and give Nevada more dollars to help individuals who need it the most,” Heller campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said in a statement.
But experts have said that the repeal efforts considered in the Senate last year would have rolled back protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
For instance, the Graham-Cassidy bill would return regulation of pre-existing condition protections to states instead of requiring a federal rule as Obamacare does. Under Graham-Cassidy, states would not have to install pre-existing condition protections, such as preventing insurers from charging sick people higher premiums than healthy customers.
Heller also co-sponsored a recent bill to preserve pre-existing condition protections if they are struck down in a legal challenge brought by 20 states against Obamacare. However, critics have said the bill doesn’t go far enough in ensuring that other patient protections in Obamacare like coverage of essential health benefits are protected.
Heller has said that Republicans erred in beginning the Trump era by trying to repeal Obamacare, and that they should instead have focused on the economy.
Rosen’s campaign responded to the new ad with a statement that Heller has a “failed record” on healthcare. “The reality is that Senator Heller has made it his mission to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, he’s introduced multiple partisan bills that slash coverage protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and the radical repeal legislation he’s championed would gut federal health care funding for Nevada,” the campaign said in a statement.
