Protecting Ohioans with preexisting conditions

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This month, a new report revealed that two million Ohioans could lose health care if President Trump gets his way and the entire Affordable Care Act is overturned.

That’s what President Trump and his administration are pushing in a case a federal court heard this summer. If the court rules the way the president wants, the entire health care law could be gone. Nearly a third of working-age adults in Ohio have a preexisting condition – and without the ACA, insurance companies would be free to kick them off their insurance, or charge them premiums they could never afford.

The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land, and no one’s health insurance changes right now. But we must be clear what’s at stake: if this ruling stands, tax credits to help you afford health insurance would be gone.

So would the ability to stay on your parents’ insurance until you’re 26, and limits on how much you pay out-of-pocket each year. Seniors would no longer get more affordable prescription drugs through closing the donut hole, and patients would be denied free preventive services like mammograms and bone density screenings.

Ohio’s entire Medicaid expansion would be gone.

We can’t let that happen. All of these attempts to take away these protections have failed before, because Americans fought back, and shared their stories. And we’ll fight back again.

I want to encourage all Ohioans – keep making your voices heard.

Last week, I met with patients in Cincinnati who were terrified of what the president’s plan would mean for their families.

One woman, Tabitha, talked about her daughter, who was born with congenital heart disease. She talked about how critical it was for their family to have affordable insurance and access to care – access that could be gone if the president gets his way.

Keep sharing your stories to remind policymakers what is at stake. I will never stop fighting to protect Ohioans’ health care, because we cannot go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage to the millions of Ohioans with a preexisting condition.

Sherrod Brown is a Democratic U.S. Senator representing Ohio.

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By Sen. Sherrod Brown

Contributing Columnist

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