HHS Secretary Alex Azar in 2019 at House Appropriations Committee session.
Democrats in the Senate questioned Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, over the Trump administration's lawsuit intended to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
According to a report in Modern Healthcare, Democrats went after the contradiction in terms that saw Trump claiming that those with preexisting conditions would be protected even as his administration sought to overturn the law that provides that protection.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the president's budget, Senator Bob Menendez, D-NJ, went after Azar for his failure to provide a detailed plan to protect patients with preexisting conditions from losing insurance coverage if the Republican-driven lawsuit succeeds in overturning the law.
"We've been hearing about killing Obamacare since it was created. There have been years to have with your own version of what it is. Why would you wait until there is a disaster to then deal with the millions of Americans who would not have health insurance?" Menendez is quoted saying.
For his part, according to the report, Azar shrugged off any urgency to have a plan in place to keep those patients covered, dismissing it by saying, "The litigation still has a very long way to proceed."
While Supreme Court justices are expected to discuss on February 21 whether they'll hear the case, Azar claimed in response to criticism of his lack of a plan from Senator Maggie Hassan, D-NH, that any actual decision would be some time off and that Trump would veto any measure that didn't provide protections to people with preexisting conditions.
But Democrats weren't buying it, with Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-NV, who was attorney general of Nevada for eight years, questioning Azar's claim that the administration could try to destroy the ACA while still providing protections for preexisting conditions.
Cortez-Masto is quoted saying, "When you go into litigation, you are setting forth your values and your principles as part of that litigation. You cannot sit here and tell me today that the administration position is that they support the Affordable Care Act and they want to keep that coverage of preexisting conditions."
Azar was defended by Senator John Cornyn, R-TX, on the supposedly long delay before any sort of court decision.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
