The Trump administration has a backup plan if a judge strikes down all or parts of Obamacare, a top federal healthcare official said Tuesday.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma told reporters that “we do have contingency plans” if the healthcare law is struck down — specifically the provision aimed at ensuring people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, have access to coverage.
But she declined to describe the backup plan, saying that it wouldn’t be appropriate to share details because it may or may not be needed.
A decision is expected any day in the case, Texas v. Azar, in which roughly 20 Republican state officials asked for a judge to strike down the Affordable Care Act. The GOP officials argue that because a key provision of the 2010 law was repealed by Congress as part of last year’s tax law, namely the fine on the uninsured, then the rest of the law also must go.
The Trump administration sided with the GOP officials, but instead of asking for the whole law to be struck down it requested only that the rules on pre-existing conditions be thrown out.
Obamacare requires coverage for a range of medical care services, mandates insurers provide coverage regardless of a person’s medical condition, and obligates that insurers charge customers the same prices regardless of whether they are sick or healthy.
