Attorney General William Barr suggested Tuesday that the Trump administration will not succeed in its lawsuit to strike down all of Obamacare.
Asked at a House hearing by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., if the Trump administration has considered the effects of the courts striking the healthcare law, Barr suggested that it wasn’t a likely scenario.
“Do you think it’s likely we are going to prevail?” he said.
Barr added that President Trump plans to enact an Obamacare alternative which would include protections for preexisting conditions.
“Should the law be struck down, millions of people who get their coverage through the ACA marketplace would lose their coverage,” Cartwright said. “Tens of millions more would see their premiums skyrocket.”
Barr responded: “I’m just saying, if you think it’s such an outrageous position then you have nothing to worry about. Let the courts do their job.”
The Department of Justice surprised Congress last month by asking a federal appeals court to strike down all of Obamacare. The request represented a shift in the administration’s approach. Previously, it had asked the courts only to strike down the parts of the law that mandate protections for people with preexisting conditions.
The underlying suit, filed by Republican state attorneys general, calls for the courts to undo Obamacare on the grounds that the law must fall because Congress undid, as part of the GOP tax law, the individual mandate.
