In a video posted to Youtube, Michigan Republican John James repeatedly called for the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, even going as far as labeling the law a “monstrosity,” which protects millions of Americans living with pre-existing conditions from discrmination by their health insurance provider.

“Our failure to repeal and replace Obamacare is the surest sign that we need new conservative leadership in Washington,”James said in Nov., 2017. “Someone who will go and work their tail off to remove this monstrosity.”

Through 2018, over 1.2 million Mich. residents were enrolled in Affordable Care Act and in 2018 an estimated 1.7 million Mich. residents — nearly 30% of the state’s population — had a pre-existing condition. If James had his way during the Republicans’ attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017, nearly all of those people could have been stripped of their insurance, and without the protections for pre-existing conditions the Affordable Care Act provides.

And again in 2017, after Congressional Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, James continued to place a target on the back of the healthcare law, voicing full-throated support for a GOP tax bill that repealed a key portion of the ACA.

This repeal later opened the door for a lawsuit that has the potential to imperil protections for those with pre-existing conditions from discrimination by their insurance provider.

James is currently vying for the U.S. Senate seat in Mich. in 2020. Should he want to win Mich., he will need the support of it’s many residents who depend on the Affordable Care Act every day — and with his record of seeking to dismantle the Affordable Care Act at every turn, it remains unclear if he will get them.

 


Contact Cole Driver at cdriver@american-ledger.org