McConnell: ‘Everybody’ in the Senate supports protections for preexisting conditions

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that “everybody” in the Senate wants to maintain protections for people with preexisting conditions, even as the Trump administration seeks to have such protections overturned in court. 

“Everybody I know in the Senate — everybody — is in favor of maintaining coverage for preexisting conditions. There is no difference in opinion about that whatsoever,” McConnell said at his weekly press conference with reporters.

The Justice Department wrote in a filing last week that it would not defend ObamaCare’s protections for people with preexisting conditions, siding in large part with a challenge to the law brought by a coalition of Republican-led states.

Twenty Republican states sued the Trump administration in February, arguing ObamaCare was unconstitutional because Congress repealed the tax penalty associated with the law’s individual mandate.

While the states asked the judge to overturn ObamaCare in its entirety, the administration said only two provisions protecting people with preexisting conditions needed to be overturned. 

Democrats have tried to tie the DOJ’s decision to Republicans in Congress ahead of the midterms in November. 

“Senator McConnell is wrong and the contrast between Republicans and Democrats on health care could not be more clear,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Spokesman David Bergstein said in a statement.

“Republicans like Senator Heller, as well as every other GOP Senate candidate, want to slash coverage for pre-existing conditions — their latest plan would even make this coverage unconstitutional. Voters will hold every Republican Senate candidate accountable for spiking their costs and slashing their coverage.”