Eliminating protections for people with pre-existing conditions was never on the table during negotiations over the American Health Care Act, according to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
“There was never a day where our conference was willing to leave people out in the cold,” Scalise told the Washington Examiner in an interview on Wednesday. “There were some people who wanted to get rid of the protections for pre-existing conditions,” he said. “We weren’t going to go there. Our conference wasn’t going to go there.”
The Louisiana Republican refuted Democrats’ characterizations of his party as callous and uncaring.
“For all the banging from the Left that, you know, ‘they don’t care about people with pre-existing conditions’ — There was never a day where our conference was willing to leave people out in the cold.”
“There’s a general understanding amongst, I think, most people in this country that whether or not you have a preexisting condition, it’s not your fault and you shouldn’t be discriminated against in healthcare policy,” Scalise explained. “So let’s find a way to protect people differently than Obamacare, because Obamacare’s answer was ‘just make everybody pay more.'”
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
