Seema Verma, the health official tasked with overseeing Obamacare, repeatedly declined to say in congressional testimony what the Trump administration would do to help people if the healthcare law were to be struck down in court.
Several Democrats pressed Verma about the plan during a House oversight panel hearing Wednesday, following up on promises of a backup plan from members of the administration and President Trump. Democrats want to bring the lawsuit to the forefront of their healthcare messaging in the coming months as the case in question, Texas v. Azar, could hit the Supreme Court right ahead of the 2020 elections.
“Does the president have a plan, and what is the plan?” asked Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey. “It sounds almost as though there is some kind of secret plan that he doesn’t want to reveal.”
Verma replied, “I’m not going to get into any specifics of the plan but the president’s agenda on healthcare has been in action from day one.” When Pallone pressed her again, she said, “We have planned for a number of different scenarios but we need to hear from the courts.”
Several other Democrats tried again throughout the hearing but got similar answers. Diana Degette, who chairs the Oversight Subcommittee, asked for a copy of the plan, but Verma declined to get into specifics.
Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois took up her full five minutes to talk about what would happen if Obamacare were to be thrown out in court before asking at the very end: “Where is the plan? Do you have a plan you can present to us?” Verma was unable to answer because the time had run out.
Obamacare’s future is in jeopardy because Republican states have sued to have the law struck down. They say it cannot stand on its own because the 2017 GOP tax overhaul zeroed out the fine on the uninsured, known as the “individual mandate,” which they say was integral to the functioning of the law. The Obama administration once argued that the mandate was essential to Obamacare, and Republicans are now turning the argument around to say that its demise means all of the law should also be thrown out.
The law’s immediate future is in the hands of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has numerous ways to rule. It could uphold a lower court ruling that declared the whole law unconstitutional, which would result in an appeal to the Supreme Court. Or, it could send it back to the lower courts. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
Undoing Obamacare would cause the 20 million people who gained coverage under the law to lose it, but it would also affect other parts of the healthcare system. For instance, there are parts of Obamacare that deal with healthcare fraud and others that deal with lowering prescription drugs for seniors. A popular provision that lets children stay on parents’ health insurance plan until age 26 would also be struck down.
