McConnell’s Supreme Court rush shows nothing but disdain for the health of Kentuckians

Over the last decade, and especially during the current pandemic, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians and their families.

Currently, 1.3 million Kentuckians are insured through Medicaid, including 479,759 Kentuckians insured through Medicaid expansion. The ACA and Medicaid expansion have been an unalloyed good for both 1) Kentuckians who were previously uninsured and 2) the doctors and hospitals who were providing uncompensated care.

Nevertheless, the Republican Party has voted to repeal or unwind the ACA more than 70 times since it became law in March of 2010.

Now, its fate is once again in question. Unable to repeal the ACA in Congress, Republicans are turning to the U.S. Supreme Court to attack the ACA. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, just a week after the 2020 election, the Supreme Court will hear a legally dubious challenge to the ACA. Mitch McConnell hopes to have a new Supreme Court justice in place by the time the case is decided.

If confirmed, we cannot predict how Judge Amy Coney Barrett would rule in this latest ACA challenge – the arguments for invalidating the law are weak. However, Judge Barrett has been vocal in her criticism of Chief Justice Roberts’ logic in his decision preserving the law, arguing that he “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.”

If Barrett is confirmed and if she votes to strike down the ACA, hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians will lose their health insurance. If that happens, Kentuckians will have no one but their senior Senator to blame.

Pushing the nomination of someone who could potentially strip health insurance from hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians is irresponsible and cruel. To prioritize her nomination above much-needed emergency relief from the dual crises of a global pandemic and economic catastrophe shows exactly how far Mitch McConnell will go and who he’s willing to hurt in the name of ideology.

In a crisis, Medicaid is vital. In response to the pandemic and economic downturn, Kentucky has extended Medicaid to nearly 60,000 individuals and families who have found themselves suddenly uninsured.

Medicaid is also a powerful tool in addressing the racial health disparities that this pandemic has so painfully revealed. Across the country, deep inequities, rooted in a history of exploitation and maltreatment of people of color, have made the COVID crisis worse. In Kentucky, Black people account for 8.5 percent of our population but 12.93 percent of total COVID-19 cases and 12.59 percent of total deaths. The numbers for the Latinx community are worse. While 3.9 percent of Kentuckians are Latinx, they make up 9.36 percent of our reported COVID cases. Access to dependable and culturally competent care can mitigate many chronic conditions that make people especially susceptible to COVID-19.

The ACA and Medicaid expansion is an American success story. More than 20 million people have gained access to health care since 2010, including 12 million individuals and families in Kentucky and thirty-six other states that expanded Medicaid. A bad ruling would end protections for people with pre-existing conditions, the ACA insurance marketplaces, and many patient protections. A terrible (and even more legally dubious) ruling would end Medicaid expansion.

The truth is, we need the ACA and Medicaid more than ever if we want to overcome this pandemic and tackle the health inequities it has exposed.

Medicaid is a critical component of our health system in good times. In a crisis, it’s a lifesaver for millions of individuals and families. The people of Kentucky know this. It’s time for their elected leaders, especially Mitch McConnell, to start listening to them. It’s never been more critical for all of us to have access to health care.

Rich Seckel is Director of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center (KEJC. Elizabeth G. Taylor is Executive Director of National Health Law Program (NHeLP).